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MADAME DU BARRY 



MEMOIRS ST H. NOEL WILLIAMS 
QUEEN MARGOT 

Wife of Henry of Navarre (Henry IV. of France). 
Demy 4to. Bound in Buckram and Gold, with 16 Photogravures. 

25s. net. 

" A brilliant, palpitating, terrible and enchanting story. Those who wish action 
and humanity and colour should read his ' Queen Margot.'" — Daily Chronicle, 

" A singularly vivid picture of the Court of France at a dramatic epoch . . . 
rich in picturesque sidelights on politics and society." — Standard. 

MADAME DU BARRY 

Demy4to. Profusely illustrated. 25s.net. Uniform with the above. 

" A typical piece of eighteenth-century history— of the first significance— show- 
ing care and discretion and utilising the latest light on the subject."— Athenceum. 

"It is interesting, for it illustrates the state of French Society immediately 
before the great Revolution." — Spectator. 

MADAME DE MONTESPAN 

Demy4to. Profusely illustrated. 25s.net. Uniform with the above. 

" A full and complete history of a most remarkable career. Will attract atten- 
tion and arouse the greatest interest. Mr. Williams' volume is a thing of beauty, 
and the photogravures add to its value and interest." — Glasgow Herald. 

QUEENS OF THE FRENCH STAGE 

Medium 8vo. Illustrated. 10s. 6d. net. 

" Mr. Noel Williams knows how to spread a full table for the cultured and 
romantic appetite. ' Queens of the French Stage ' is full of good things." 

Pall Mall Gazette. 

LATER QUEENS OF THE FRENCH 
STAGE 

Medium 8vo. Illustrated. 10s. 6d. net. 

" Interesting and entertaining. . . . Readers with a taste for history will find 
it no less amusing than a novel. It helps to make known the social history of 
eighteenth-century France." — Daily Telegraph. 

MADAME DE POMPADOUR 

A New and Cheaper Edition. With Photogravure Portrait. 

Demy 8vo. 7s. 6d. 
"Cleverly done and fascinating as any novel." — Daily Chronicle. 

MADAME RECAMIER 

AND HER FRIENDS 
Demy 8vo. Uniform with " Madame de Pompadour." 
With Photogravure. 7s. 6d. 
" He has done justice to a subject of unrivalled charm."— Athenaum. 



MADAME DU BARRY 



BY 



H. NOEL WILLIAMS 

AUTHOR OF " MADAME RECAMIER AND HER FRIENDS," 
" MADAME DE POMPADOUR," " MADAME DE MONTESPAN," ETC. 



" C'est aux mortels d'adorer votre image ; 
L'original etait fait pour les Dieux " 

Verses addressed by Voltaire to Madame du Barry in 1773 




WITH PORTRAIT 



LONDON AND NEW YORK 
HARPER fcf BROTHERS 

45 ALBEMARLE STREET, W. 
1909 






4to Edition published 1904 



Bequest 

Albert Adsit C lemons 

Aug. 24, 1938 

(Not available for exchange) 



PREFACE 

" Madame de Pompadour," says Sainte-Beuve, " was 
the last king's mistress worthy of the name ; after her it 
would be impossible to descend and enter with decency 
into the history of the Du Barry." 

Sainte-Beuve wrote these words in 1850, thirty-three 
years before M. Charles Vatel had published the result of 
his long and patient researches into the remarkable career 
of the daughter of the Vaucouleurs sempstress, at a time 
when the principal sources of information concerning 
Madame du Barry were the works of the mendacious 
Pidansat de Mairobert and other writers of the same 
school. Had the great critic lived until the appear- 
ance of M. Vatel's admirable work, or had he been 
acquainted with some of the Memoirs and Correspond- 
ence of Madame du Barry's contemporaries which have 
been given to the world during the last quarter of a 
century, we cannot but think that he would have found 
cause to modify the opinion we have just cited, and 
perhaps even to have accorded to the lady a little of 
the indulgence which he has shown for Madame de 
Pompadour. 

For the real Madame du Barry — the woman who is re- 
vealed to us in the Memoirs of Belleval,DufortdeChevreny, 
and Madame Vigee Lebrun, in the evidence published 



PREFACE 

for the first time by M. Vatel, and in her own letters — is 
a very different person from the popular Du Barry of 
pamphlets and romances and contemporary biographies. 
If we can for the moment forget the infamy of her 
early life, if we can forget the degradation which Louis 
XV. 's connection with a woman of such antecedents 
brought upon the Monarchy, we are compelled to admit 
that the last left-hand queen of France compares very 
favourably with her predecessors ; very favourably, too, 
with many of her contemporaries whose virtue has never 
been called in question. She had none of the brilliant 
wit of a Montespan, none of the elegance and refinement 
of a Pompadour, it is true; but neither had she the 
arrogance and gross superstition of the one nor the 
ambition and vindictiveness of the other. 

Apart from her struggle with Choiseul and her pro- 
tection of his rival and successor, d'Aiguillon, Madame 
du Barry, unlike her brilliant predecessor in the royal 
affections, left politics severely alone. Her position as 
the idol of the infatuated old King, wifh unlimited oppor- 
tunities of squandering the public money on her whims 
and caprices, was sufficient for her ; and so long as her 
drafts upon the Treasury were honoured, she cared not 
one jot about the financial experiments of Terray or the 
judicial reforms of Maupeou. To her, a smile or a few 
civil words from the haughty little Dauphiness were of 
infinitely more importance than the designs of the Eastern 
Powers on Poland, and the preparedness of the Navy for 
war or the price of bread small things indeed beside the 
fit of a new gown from Pagelle or the success of a fete at 
Louveciennes. 

Nevertheless, this feather-brained courtesan had a kind 
heart and many amiable qualities. " She is a good- 

vi 



PREFACE 

hearted woman," wrote Voltaire to Madame de Roche- 
fort ; and the Patriarch was right. On three occasions 
did she intercede on behalf of condemned criminals, and 
each time with success ; she gave generously, lavishly ; 
not only during the days when she had the Treasury to 
draw upon, but in later years, when her means were 
relatively small ; nothing roused her to such indignation 
as the sight of cruelty or the neglect of suffering ; she 
was the best of relatives, the most loyal of friends. 

Moreover, in striking contrast to Madame de Pom- 
padour, she was quite incapable of bearing malice, and 
" had the virtue, rare, especially amongst her own sex, of 
never speaking ill of any one." No one was ever sent to 
the Bastille or Vincennes on her account. When the 
Lieutenant of Police came to inform her that his men 
had apprehended a person who had been writing ribald 
songs about her, and to ask what was to be done with the 
delinquent, she laughingly bade him " give the man some- 
thing to eat, and then make him sing them." The 
object of the most bitter hatred and jealousy on the part 
of the ladies of the Choiseul faction, subjected daily, by 
the hired scribes employed by the Minister, to libels, 
lampoons, and every species of calumny and insult, she 
bore the attacks upon her with a patience and good- 
humour which disarmed all but the most virulent of her 
foes, and it was only when every overture she had made 
to the duke had been haughtily repulsed, that she re- 
luctantly joined forces with his enemies and contributed 
to bring about his disgrace. 

That event, so long regarded by historians as a calamity 
for France, was, in truth, a fortunate circumstance, since 
documents now accessible prove conclusively that at the 
moment of his fall Choiseul was secretly endeavouring to 



PREFACE 

plunge the country into what could not have failed to 
prove a most disastrous war, for the sole purpose of 
maintaining himself in power, and is, therefore, entirely 
undeserving of the sympathy which has been lavished 
upon him by ill-informed writers. 

Exiled from the Court on the death of Louis XV., 
Madame du Barry, with the exception of a couple of years 
spent partly in a species of confinement at the Abbey of 
Pont-aux-Dames and partly on an estate which she 
purchased at Saint-Vrain, passed the rest of her life at 
her beautiful chateau of Louveciennes, devoting not a 
little of the wealth " acquired in the service of the King " 
to relieving the distress of her poorer neighbours. Her 
love affairs with Henry Seymour and the Due de Brissac 
belong to this period; the first, a short-lived, though 
genuine passion, the latter, "une liaison tendrement maritale" 
as the Goncourts designate it, which lasted for more 
than twelve years, and terminated only with the duke's 
death in the terrible butchery of the Orleans prisoners, at 
Versailles, on September 9, 1792. 

The ex-favourite did not long survive her lover. 
Certain indiscretions committed during her visits to 
London, in 1791 and 1792, in quest of a portion of her 
jewellery, which had been stolen in January of the former 
year, were seized upon and distorted by the fanatical 
Grieve, whose cruel persecution of the unhappy lady is 
one of the mysteries of the Revolution, into crimes 
against the Republic. In September 1793 she was 
arrested and imprisoned in Sainte-P61agie, and on 
December 7 brought before the Revolutionary Court to 
undergo the usual mockery of a trial. Two days later, 
the knife of the guillotine put an end to the long line of 
reines de la main gauche. 



PREFACE 

In the present volume, as in those which have preceded 
it, it has been my endeavour to give not only a full but 
an unprejudiced account of my subject, and, with this 
object in view, I have consulted practically all the chief 
contemporary sources of information — some of which 
have only seen the light within recent years — among 
which I may mention the Souvenirs of Belleval, the 
Journal of Hardy, the Memoires of Bachaumont, Besenval, 
Dutens and Lauzun, the Letters of Madame du Deffand, 
the Correspondence between Mercy-Argenteau and Maria 
Theresa, and between the latter and Marie Antoinette, 
and the Despatches of Mercy to Kaunitz, published in 
1896 by Ritter von Arneth and M. Jules Flammermont. 
I have also made use of a very large number of modern 
works and review articles, particularly those bearing upon 
the two most interesting events in Madame du Barry's 
career, from a purely historical point of view, namely, the 
fall of Choiseul and the prosecution of d'Aiguillon, the 
immediate cause of the destruction of the old Parliament 
of Paris, which subjects will be found to have been treated 
more fully, and, I venture to think, more impartially, than 
in any previous biography of the favourite. Most of the 
latter authorities are indicated in the text or the foot- 
notes ; and I shall, therefore, confine myself to acknow- 
ledging my indebtedness to the monographs on Madame 
du Barry by M. Vatel, the Goncourts, and Mr. R. B. 
Douglas — particularly to the former, which is a perfect 
monument of careful and industrious research — to M. Jules 
Flammermont's he Chancelier Maupeou et les Parlements, 
to M. Gaston Maugras's Le Due et la Duchesse de 
Choiseul and La Disgrace du Due et de la Duchesse de 
Choiseul, to M. Pierre de Nolhac's Marie Antoinette 
Dauphine, to M. Geffroy's Gustave III. et la Cour de 



PREFACE 

France, and to the interesting article on Henry Seymour, 
by Mr. J. G. Alger, in the Westminster Review \ January 
1897. 

In conclusion, my thanks are due to the Art Repro- 
duction Company for their assistance in selecting the 
portraits that appear in this volume. 

H. NOEL WILLIAMS. 
London, September 1904. 



CONTENTS 



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Page 


i 


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II 














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III 














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3° 


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73 


11 


VII 














ii 


82 


11 


VIII 














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100 


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IX 














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X 














ii 


125 


ii 


XI 














ii 


141 


ii 


XII 














ii 


165 


ii 


XIII 














ii 


192 


ii 


XIV 














ii 


202 


ii 


XV 














' a 


228 


ii 


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238 


ii 


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249 


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269 


it 


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286 


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306 


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320 


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33 + 


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XXIII 














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35° 


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365 


ii 


XXV 














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380 



XI 



CHAPTER I 

The death of Madame de Pompadour followed by an inter- 
regnum — Duel between the Duchesse de Gramont and the 
Marquise d'Esparbes for possession of the King's heart- 
Short-lived triumph and exile of the latter — Madame de 
Seran — Interview between her and Louis XV. — A platonic 
liaison — Choiseul and Madame de Seran — Temporary re- 
formation of the King — Death of the Queen. 

After the death of Madame de Pompadour, on April 1 5, 
1764, there was an interregnum of more than four years 
at Versailles. It must not be supposed, however, that 
such a condition of affairs was in any way due to lack of 
enterprise on the part of the ladies of the Court, many of 
whom ardently coveted the post vacated by the famous 
marchioness ; and, indeed, for some months, Versailles was 
a perfect hot-bed of intrigue and conspiracy. 

Of the numerous candidates, the chances of two were, 
by common consent, acknowledged to be far superior to 
those of their competitors, insomuch that, after a while, 
the latter decided to stand aside and leave them in 
undisputed possession of the arena. 

The two ladies in question were the Duchesse de 
Gramont, 1 sister of the all-powerful Minister, the Due de 

1 Beatrix de Choiseul-Stainville, born at Luneville in 1730, guillo- 
tined in 1793. In 1759, she had married the Due de Gramont, but, 
three months later, unable to endure the " crapulous " life led by her 
husband, separated from him and went to live at her brother's house, 

I A 



MADAME DU BARRY 

Choiseul, and the Marquise d'Esparbes, both of whom 
had been intimate friends of Madame de Pompadour, 
and, therefore, considered that they had special claims to 
succeed her. The duchess was not beautiful and a little 
masculine in appeara ice, proud, overbearing, and "spiteful 
as the devil," but intelligent, witty, and (according to 
Lauzun) c< desirable." The marchioness is described as 
short and red-haired, " with a somewhat misshapen 
nose " ; but these blemishes were atoned for by a dazzling 
complexion and shapely white hands, of which she was so 
proud that she was in the habit of having them bled, in 
order to preserve their transparency. 

Urged on by her brother, and encouraged by his 
clients, who saw in her elevation a sure guarantee of the 
continuance of their patron's favour, Madame de Gramont 
appears to have underrated the difficulties of her task, and, 
believing success assured, to have conducted her wooing 
in too masterful a manner. The result was that Louis XV., 
whose heart always yielded more readily to a prolonged 
siege than a direct assault, became alarmed, was at pains 
to avoid dangerous tete-a-tetes with the lady, and, finally, 
decided to ensure his escape by accepting the favours 
which Madame d'Esparbes was so anxious to bestow upon 
him — favours which, it may be mentioned, had already 
been enjoyed by several of his subjects, the aged Richelieu 
and the youthful Lauzun among the number. 

Matters had actually progressed so far that Madame 
d'Esparbes was on the point of being " proclaimed " at 
Marly, where a splendid suite of apartments had been 
allotted her, when Choiseul, who was absolutely deter- 
mined that, if his sister were not to be promoted to the 

where scandalous tongues declared that she occupied a somewhat 
equivocal position. 



MADAME DU BARRY 

vacant post, no one else should occupy it, contrived to 
dash the cup of happiness from her lips. 

Meeting her one day on the grand staircase, surrounded 
by a crowd of courtiers, he took her by the chin, and 
exclaimed in a patronising tone : " Well, little one, how 
are your affairs progressing ? " 

Poor Madame d'Esparbes, utterly taken aback by such 
extraordinary behaviour, was unable to say a single word 
by way of retort, and could only look supremely foolish ; 
while her enemy walked away, chuckling over her dis- 
comfiture, and related the incident to every one whom he 
chanced to meet. 

"The women who do not love the duke (and they are 
many) are disgusted at the cowardice displayed by 
Madame d'Esparbes," writes Prince Xavier of Saxony, 
" and regard her as a simpleton and a prude, protesting 
that, in her place, they would have applied two good 
blows to the ministerial cheeks, to teach him to give him- 
self the air of taking ladies by the chin." 

This public insult put an end, nevertheless, to the hopes 
of Madame d'Esparbes. For a grande maitresse, she 
was sadly deficient in aplomb ; and this proved her un- 
doing. Louis disliked scandal and ridicule ; and, finding 
that he must choose between a woman who was the 
laughing-stock of his Court and a Minister whose services 
he at that time deemed indispensable, did not hesitate to 
decide in favour of the latter. And so it happened that 
the next communication which poor Madame d'Esparbes 
received from her royal lover was not a poulet, but a 
lettre de cachet, coldly informing her that it was his 
Majesty's pleasure that she should retire to her father-in- 
law's country-seat, near Montauban. 

After the departure of Madame d'Esparbes, the Ktng 

3 



MADAME DU BARRY 

appears to have diverted himself with the inmates of the 
Parc-aux-Cerfs, 1 varied by an intrigue with a Mademoiselle 
de Luzy, an actress who excelled in soubrette parts, and 
what is believed to have been a liaison of a platonic 
character with the Comtesse de Seran. 

The Comtesse de Seran, who is described by Marmontel 
as " beautiful as the goddess of Love, and still more 
interesting by her kindness and native innocence than b 
the lustre of her beauty," was a young lady of twen y 
married to a very worthy gentleman of ancient family, 
but of an ugliness so appalling (" red-haired, ill-made, 
with only one eye, and a cataract in that ") that, when he 
was presented to her as her future husband, " she turned 
pale with horror, and her heart revolted against him with 
disgust and repugnance." 

Madame de Seran aspired to be one of the ladies of the 
Duchesse de Chartres ; but, as there was some little 
difficulty in the way, owing to a doubt as to the exact 
length of her pedigree — only those who could trace their 
nobility back four hundred years were eligible for the 
post — the matter was referred to Louis XV., who, c< after 
listening with more attention to the praises of her beauty 
than the proofs of her noble blood," gave his consent, on 
condition that, after being presented, she should come and 
thank him in person. 

We will let Marmontel, the countess's confidant, relate 
what followed : 

" The rendezvous was in the King's private apart- 
ments; the lady went, trembling exceedingly. Her 

1 For a full account of this mysterious establishment, see Memoires de 
Madame du Haus set (edit. 1825), p. 91 et seq.; M. Le Roi's Curiosites 
historiques, p. 230 et seq., and chapter xi. of the author's " Madame de 
Pompadour" (London, Harpers ; New York, Scribners, 1902), 

4 



MADAME DU BARRY 

friends were on the tip-toe of expectation; the young 
countess was to be omnipotent ; the King and the Court 
were to be at her feet ; while all her friends would be 
loaded with favours. The company awaited the young 
sovereign ; they counted every minute ; they died with 
impatience to see her arrive, and yet they were glad at 
her being so long in arriving. 

" At last she does arrive, and gives us an account of 
all that had passed. A page of the Bedchamber awaited 
her at the gate of the chapel, and she ascended by a secret 
staircase into the private apartments. She had not long 
to wait for the King. He had accosted her with an 
agreeable air, had taken her hands, had pressed them 
respectfully, and, observing her apprehension, had encou- 
raged her by gentle words and looks full of kindness. 
He then made her sit opposite to him, congratulated her 
upon the success of the appearance she had made, and 
said that every one was agreed that no one so handsome 
had ever been seen at his Court." 

" ' Then,* said she, * it must be true, Sire, that happi- 
ness makes us beautiful, and, in that case, I should be 
still happier now.' 

" ' Accordingly you are so/ said he, taking my hands 
and gently squeezing them in his, which were then 
trembling. 

" After a moment's hesitation, in which his looks alone 
spoke, he asked me what position I should be most 
ambitious to obtain. 

" I answered, ' The place of the Princesse d'Armagnac/ 
(She was an old friend of the King, who was lately dead.) 

" * Ah ! ' said he, * you are very young to supply the 
place of a friend who was present at my birth, who held 
me upon her knees, and whom I have loved from my 

5 



MADAME DU BARRY 

cradle. Time, Madame, is necessary to obtain my con- 
fidence. I have been so often deceived.' 

" * Oh ! ' said I, ' I will not deceive you ; and if time 
only is required to deserve the exalted title of your friend, 
I have that to give you.' 

" This language from a person only twenty surprised, 
but did not displease him. Changing the subject, he 
inquired if 1 thought his private apartments furnished 
with taste. 

" * No,' said I, * I should prefer them blue,' and as blue 
is his favourite colour, he was flattered by the reply. I 
added that in every other respect they appeared to me 
charming. 

" * If you like them,' said he, * I hope you will some- 
times be so good as to come, every Sunday, for instance, 
at the same hour as now.' 

"I assured him that 1 would avail myself of every 
opportunity of paying my court to him, upon which he 
left me and went to sup with his children. He made an 
appointment for this day week, at the same hour. I give 
you all warning, therefore, that I shall be the King's 
friend, and that I will never be anything more." 

The expectant friends, we may suppose, did everything 
possible to turn the lady from her resolution ; but, 
according to Marmontel, she adhered to it firmly, and 
though she paid the King weekly visits, finding on the 
first occasion that the salon furniture had been changed 
to blue, and corresponded with him in the intervals 
between their meetings, the connection never went beyond 
the bounds of friendship. " The King at his age," he 
writes, " was not sorry to have an opportunity of tasting 
the charms of a sentimental union — the more flattering 
and agreeable that it was new, and that it sensibly affected 

6 



MADAME DU BARRY 

him without endangering his vanity." The writer adds 
that he was " an ocular witness of the purity of this con- 
nection," as Madame de Seran was in the habit of 
communicating to him his Majesty's letters and her 
replies. 

The mystery of the private meetings between the King 
and the lady did not escape the watchful eyes of the 
Court, which was naturally but little inclined to share 
Marmontel's view of the matter. Choiseul was furious, 
and, in accordance with his determination to keep at a 
distance from the King every woman who was not devoted 
to himself, prepared to crush Madame de Seran, as he 
had crushed Madame d'Esparbes. The countess, how- 
ever, warned of his designs, hastened to undeceive him. 
She was acquainted with La Borde, the Court banker, 
one of Choiseul's staunchest allies, and requested him to 
arrange for her an interview with the Minister at his 
house and in his presence. 

" Monsieur le Due/' said she, " I have a favour to ask 
of you. You, I understand, speak very slightingly of me ; 
you believe me to be one of those women who aim at 
gaining possession of the King's heart and acquiring influ- 
ence over his mind, which gives you umbrage. I might 
have punished you for the liberty you have taken, but I 
prefer to undeceive you. The King expressed a desire 
to see me, which I did not refuse to gratify ; we have 
had private conversations and have carried on a constant 
correspondence. You are aware of all this ; but the letters 
of the King will soon inform you of something which 
you do not know. Read them ; you will find an extreme 
kindness, but as much respect as tenderness, and nothing 
at which I have cause to blush. I love the King as a 
father ; I would give my life for him, but, King as he is, 

7 



MADAME DU BARRY 

he will never prevail upon me to deceive him, nor to 
degrade myself by granting what my heart neither will 
nor can bestow." 

Thereupon, she handed to the duke his Majesty's 
letters, which contained such expressions as " You are 
only too admirable"; "Permit me to kiss your hands"; 
" Permit me, in absence at least, to embrace you," and 
so forth. 

Choiseul read the letters, and, much relieved, " pre- 
pared to throw himself at the lady's feet to implore her 
forgiveness." 

" The King is indeed in the right," said he ; " you are 
but too admirable. Now tell me what service can be 
rendered to you by the new friend you have attached for 
life?" 

The lady accepted an appointment for a M. de la 
Bathe, a young officer who was about to marry her 
sister; but would take nothing herself from the King, 
except a little hotel situated at the back of the Oratory. 1 

About this time, Louis XV. would appear to have been 
seized with one of his periodical fits of remorse. As a 
rule, these attacks began with Lent, reached their climax 
in Holy Week, and ended at Easter ; but the present one 
was prolonged until after the death of the Queen in June 
1768. "Advancing in years, worn out with pleasures," 
writes Mercy-Argenteau, the Austrian Ambassador, " he 
appeared to seek in the bosom of his family the tran- 
quillity and happiness which disorders would not permit 
of; he visited the Queen regularly every evening, and 

1 Memoires de Marmontel (edit. 1804), iii. 64, et seq. 

Cheverny says that the " little hotel " was, in reality, une belle maison, 
and scoffs at the idea that the King got nothing in return \ but then 
Cheverny was a scandal-monger. 

8 



MADAME DU BARRY 

this princess, who for a long time had not enjoyed the 
least credit, obtained then many things which indicated 
that she would recover a certain ascendency over her 
husband's mind. At the same time, the King showed on 
several occasions a desire to put away from him too near 
temptations to a licentious life ; the number of inmates of 
the Parc-aux-Cerfs was reduced to two, one of whom, 
Mademoiselle Estain, requested permission to retire, and 
did, in point of fact, do so. The illness of the Queen 
supervened, and from the first her state was considered 
hopeless. Then every one believed that the King, 
already inclining towards a reformation in his morals, 
would, perhaps, in the event of widowhood, think of 
espousing a young and amiable wife, who would be able 
to assure him repose of conscience and happiness for 
the remainder of his days ; and this idea was firmly 
established in the public mind." 1 

Vain hope ! Scarcely had poor Marie Leczinska been 
laid in her grave than Louis fell again, and this time lower 
than he had ever yet descended. 

1 Mercy to Kaunitz, November 9, 1768. 



CHAPTER II 

Genealogy of Jeanne Becu — Her birth — Her baptismal certifi- 
cate — Question of her paternity — Her mother, Anne Becu, 
brings her to Paris — M. Billard-Dumouceaux — The Couvent 
de Sainte-Aure — Education which Jeanne receives there — 
She returns to her mother — The coiffeur Lametz — She enters 
the service of Madame de la Garde — Labille's shop — A serious 
charge — Her first lovers — " Comte" Jean du Barry, surnamed 
the "Roue" — His history — Jeanne becomes his mistress — 
And calls herself Mademoiselle de Vaubernier — Her life with 
the " Roue" — Her friends — Lauzun's account of his visit to 
their house — She becomes the fashion. 

About the middle of the reign of Louis XIV., there lived 
in Paris a rotisseur, or roasting cook, named Fabien Becu. 
This B6cu, who is said to have been a singularly handsome 
man, had the good fortune to find favour in the eyes of a 
certain Dame de Cantigny, or Quantigny, who carried her 
infatuation so far as to marry him. Their wedded life, 
however, does not seem to have been of long duration, 
and, after bearing him a daughter, of whom nothing is 
known, the countess died, " leaving her affairs in great 
disorder." Fabien had perforce to return to the kitchen, 
and entered the service of the beautiful Madame de Ludres, 
who, for some months in the early part of the year 1677, 
disputed with Madame de Montespan the possession of the 
heart of le Grand Monarque. Worsted in the unequal 
contest, and unable to bear the cruel taunts and insults 
which her " thunderous and triumphant " rival heaped 

10 



MADAME DU BARRY 

upon her, Madame de Ludres quitted the Court and retired 
to her country-seat, the Chateau de Vane, in Lorraine. 
Fabien accompanied his mistress, and, in 1693, married a 
fellow servant, a girl called Jeanne Husson, by whom he 
had seven children, three sons and four daughters. Of 
the sons, Charles, the eldest, became vakt-de-chambre to 
Stanislaus Leczinski, ex-King of Poland, while his two 
brothers, Jean-Baptiste and Nicolas, took service with noble 
families in Paris. Of the daughters, two, Marie-Anne and 
Marguerite, married persons in their own station in life ; 
a third, H61ene, became femme-de-chambre to Madame 
Bignon, wife of the librarian of the Bibliotheque du Roi ; 
while the fourth, Anne, who, with her sister H61ene, in- 
herited Fabien Becu's good looks, settled at Vaucouleurs, 
a small town on the borders of Champagne and Lorraine, 
now in the Department of the Meuse. 1 

Anne B6cu was by occupation a sempstress, but inas- 
much as she lived in a large and comfortable house, the 
neighbours entertained a shrewd suspicion that she had a 
more lucrative source of revenue than her needle — a sus- 
picion which was confirmed when, on August 19, 1743, 
she gave birth to a natural daughter, who was baptized 
the same day, the acte de naissance being as follows : 

"Jeanne, natural daughter of Anne B<ku, otherwise 
known as Quantigny, was born the nineteenth of August 
of the year seventeen hundred and forty-three and bap- 
tized the same day ; having for godfather Joseph Demange, 
and for godmother Jeanne Birabin, who have signed 
with me. 

"Jeanne Birabine. L. Galon, 

Vicar of Vaucouleurs. 
Joseph Demange." 2 

1 M. Vatel's Histoire de Madame du Barry, i. 1, et sea. 
* E. and J. de Goncourt's La Du Barry, p. 6. 
11 



MADAME DU BARRY 

Such was the origin of the future Comtesse du Barry, 
the last left-hand queen of France. 

It will be observed that in the above certificate the 
name of the father is omitted, nor has the question of the 
child's paternity been settled to this day, notwithstanding 
the fact that it has given rise to interminable disputes 
between historians and a long and costly lawsuit. 1 The 
majority of encyclopaedias and biographical dictionaries, 
including even some of comparatively recent date, agree 
in giving the little girl for father a certain Gomard de 
Vaubernier, a clerk in the Excise, an error the origin of 
which we shall presently explain ; but the theory which 
finds most favour with modern writers is that which 
ascribes the paternity to a Picpus monk, 2 one Jean Jacques 
Gomard, in religion Frere Ange, with whom Jeanne Becu 
was on very intimate terms in later years in Paris, and 
who is believed to have been at this time an inmate of 
a community established at Vaucouleurs, in the Rue de 
Chaussee, the remains of whose house may still be 
seen. 8 

Some time between the spring of 1747 and the close of 
1749, Anne Becu, with her little daughter, removed from 
Vaucouleurs to Paris, where, as we have mentioned, two 
of her brothers and her sister Helene were in service. 
This step was not improbably prompted by the fact that, 
in February of the former year, Anne had become the 
mother of a second child, a boy, who was baptized as 

1 See p. 342, infra. 

2 The Picpus monks, so called from the site of their chief monastery 
at the village of Picpus, near Paris, were Tertiaries, or members of the 
Third Order of St. Francis. They were not, strictly speaking, monks at 
all, but non-conventual members, who continued to live in society 
without the obligation of celibacy. 

I M. VateFs Histoire de Madame du Barry, i. 5. 

12 



MADAME DU BARRY 

Claude, 1 and was beginning to find herself regarded with 
disfavour by her neighbours. Soon after their arrival in 
the capital, Jeanne, who, even at this early age, showed 
promise of quite remarkable beauty, attracted the attention 
of a M. Billard-Dumouceaux, 2 a rich financier and army 
contractor, and, according to Grosley, " the most amiable 
man in Paris," who constituted himself a kind of informal 
guardian to the child, and took both her and her mother 
to reside with him, the latter, apparently, in the capacity of 
cook. M. Dumouceaux was a patron of the arts, and 
himself a pastelist of some ability, which probably accounts 
for the fact that in the inventory of the Chateau of Louve- 
ciennes, the residence which Louis XIV. gave to the 
favourite, mention is made of a portrait of Madame du 
Barry as a child. M. Vatel is of opinion that this is a 
copy of a work executed for M. Dumouceaux by one of 
the artists who frequented his house. 

When Jeanne was seven years old, through the influence 
of M. Dumouceaux or one of his friends, very possibly 
the Abbe Arnaud (who used to boast in after years of 
having dandled the future favourite of Louis XV. upon 
his knee), admission was procured for her to the Couvent 
de Sainte-Aure, in the Rue Neuve Sainte-Genevieve. This 

1 Nothing seems to be known about the subsequent career of this 
boy. 

2 Pidansat de Mairobert and other contemporary biographers of 
Madame du Barry assert that this M. Dumouceaux was Jeanne's god- 
father, having been present at Vaucouleurs at the time of her birth and 
undertaken the duty at the request of her father, Vaubernier, the 
Excise clerk, who was one of his subordinates. This is, of course, 
ridiculous, as we have shown that Joseph Demange was the parrain of 
Jeanne B6cu and that Vaubernier was a myth ; and we mention it 
merely as an instance of the amount of credence to be placed in the 
testimony of these chroniclers. 

13 



MADAME DU BARRY 

was a community which had been founded, about the year 
1687, by Pere Gardeau, cure of Saint-Etienne-du-Mont, 
" to provide an asylum for young girls of his parish whom 
poverty had led into dissipation." But, in 1723, it had 
been changed to " an establishment for the education of 
youth, where they are instructed in Christian piety and in 
arts suitable for women," and thrown open to " all young 
people, born of honest parents, who may find themselves 
in circumstances in which they are in danger of ruin." 1 

The nuns, who followed, in a modified form, the regu- 
lations of Saint Augustin, and entitled themselves " adora- 
trices du sacre cceur de Jisus" numbered fifty-three, of 
whom ten were lay-sisters ; they provided accommoda- 
tion for forty pupils, who paid from 250 to 300 livres a 
year and certain extras, and also admitted, at an annual 
charge of 500 livres, ladies who wished to use the convent 
as a temporary retreat. 

On the whole, the life was not austere, but conventual 
habits were very strictly observed. The pupils rose at 
five ; at seven, they attended mass in a private chapel built 
for the use of the convent ; at eleven, they dined on plain 
but sufficient food ; and at nine, they retired to their 
dormitories. The costume was severe and simple. On 
the head each little girl wore a black woollen hood, with 
a band of coarse cloth bound tightly across the forehead, 
a plain frock of white Aumale serge, an unstarched veil, 
and shoes of yellow calf fastened with cords of the same. 
Playfulness, jesting, raillery, affectation, and even loud 
laughter were forbidden and punished. The curriculum, 
besides instruction in religious duties, included reading, 

1 Hurtaut's Dktlonnaire de la ville de Paris et set environs (Paris, 
1777), i. 413. Tableau de rbumanit'e et de la bienfaisance, 1769, by 
Allctz, cited by M. Vatel. 

H 



MADAME DU BARRY 

writing, drawing, needlework, embroidery, and house- 
keeping." 1 

To this convent, then, Jeanne was sent, "with two 
pairs of sheets and six towels," and here she remained 
until she was fifteen ; at least we hear no more of her 
until the early part of 1759. Of her life there nothing is 
known, except that she would appear to have received a 
tolerable education. Her spelling and her grammar are 
ridiculed by writers like Pidansat de Mairobert, but, as 
M. Vatel very justly points out, in those days few ladies 
knew how to spell correctly ; and the grandes dames who 
reproached Richelieu with his infidelities wrote " Vous ne 
mime plu." 2 " With the exception of the letters addressed 
to Henry Seymour, 3 and which appear to have been 
dictated by ardent passion," he says, " her style is dull or, 
as she called it, terre-a-terre. What must be borne in 
mind from the letters verified as hers is that she received 
and retained a certain amount of intellectual culture, which 
could have been acquired only at Sainte-Aure. We find 
her expressing an opinion on Nero, whose cruelties she 
considered to have been exaggerated ; on Lovelace, &c. 
She read Cicero and Demosthenes, and had a great love 
for Shakespeare, translated, of course, since she professed 
herself unacquainted with the English language. She had 
learned how to draw, and founded a prize for the pupils 

1 Constitution des religieuses de Bainte-Aure y suivant la regie de Saint- 
Augustin (Paris, 1786), cited by the Goncourts. 

2 Madame de Pompadour, who was one of the most accomplished 
women of her time, never seemed able to distinguish between the 
possessive pronoun se and the demonstrative ce> and, like Louis XV., was 
in the habit of adding an s to the third person plural of verbs ; while 
the orthography of Madame Geoffrin, who kept a literary salon, was a 
thing to marvel at. 

8 See p. 294, et seq. r infra, 

IS 



MADAME DU BARRY 

at the School of Drawing opened by M. de Sartines. This 
little accomplishment ought also to be placed to the credit 
of the education she received at the convent.*' 1 

Nor were the years spent at Sainte-Aure without their 
effect upon Jeanne's character. The curriculum, as we 
have said, included instruction in household management ; 
and, even in the midst of her greatest prodigality, when 
she was squandering the public money with both hands on 
an army of jewellers, dressmakers, milliners, and bric-a- 
brac dealers, she never forgot the lessons of her childhood. 
She kept a daily account of her expenses ; she carefully 
checked every item in the bills of her tradesmen ; she 
exercised as keen a supervision over her household as the 
wife of any bourgeois ; and when in London, in 1792, we 
find her writing instructions to her steward to make jam 
of all the fruit grown at Louveciennes. 

Again, as with Madame de Montespan, the traces of 
her early religious education remained ineffaceable, and 
throughout her life she manifested the most profound 
respect for the forms and ceremonies of the Church. She 
built a private chapel in her hotel at Versailles, another at 
Saint- Vrain, a third at Louveciennes, where the services 
were conducted by a Recollect, who came from Saint- 
Germain expressly for the purpose. She enriched the 
Church at Louveciennes by gifts of candles, pictures, and 
ornaments of all kinds. Banished to the Abbey of Pont- 
aux-Dames after the death of Louis XV., she speedily 
conciliated the abbess, Madame de Fontenille, who had 
been strongly prejudiced against her, and made so many 
friends among the nuns that her enemies accused her of 
a hypocritical simulation of devotion. Finally, in 1792, 
she gave shelter, at no small risk to herself, to the Abbe 
* fiisfoire 4e Madame du Barry, i. zj. 
16 



MADAME DU BARRY 

de Jorre, the Abbe de Roche-Fontenille, nephew of the 
Abbess of Pont-aux-Dames, and a number of other 
persecuted ecclesiastics. 

On leaving the convent, Jeanne went to live with her 
mother, who had some years previously married a man 
named Nicolas Ran^on, described in the marriage certifi- 
cate as " a domestic," and now resided in the Rue Neuve 
Saint-Etienne. If we are to believe the Goncourts, the 
family were in great poverty, and the little girl was com- 
pelled to earn a precarious livelihood by peddling haber- 
dashery, sham jewellery, and other trifles " that people 
buy for the sake of the beaux yeux of the seller," about 
the streets, and that, while engaged in this occupation, she 
fell a victim to the Comte de Genlis, " one of the most 
fascinating libertines of the age," who, in after years, was 
profoundly astonished to recognise in the mistress of 
Louis XV. a little girl of the streets whom his valet-de- 
chambre had once brought him. 1 

The account, however, which the Goncourts give of 
Jeanne's early life is, for the most part, based on very 
untrustworthy evidence, and must be regarded with sus- 
picion, and the earliest authentic information which we 
have of the future favourite after her admission to Sainte- 
Aure is in the spring of 1759, wnen sne makes her 
appearance in a somewhat singular connection. 

On April 18, 1759, Anne Becu, or Rancon, as she now 
was, accompanied by her daughter, who, it may be men- 
tioned, also called herself Rancon, and gave her age as 
fourteen and a half, though she was within four months 
of completing her sixteenth year, presented herself before 
Charpentier, the commissary of police for their quarter, to 

1 E. and J. de Goncourt's La Du Barry, p. 12 

17 s 



MADAME DU BARRY 

lodge a complaint, and demand protection, against the 
widow Lametz, or Lameth, dressmaker, of the Rue 
Neuve des Petits-Champs. It appeared that Madame 
Rancon and Jeanne had made the acquaintance of the 
widow's son, who was a coiffeur de dames at the house of 
a Madame Peugevin, where Helene Becu, Anne's sister, 
was employed as fernme-de-chambre, and which young 
Lametz used to visit in his professional capacity. 
Madame Rancon suggested that Lametz should give a 
few lessons in his art to her daughter, which, as may be 
supposed, he was willing enough to do, and henceforth 
seems to have spent the greater part of his time at the 
Rancons' house. 

After the lessons had continued for some months, with 
great satisfaction to all parties concerned, the young 
man's frequent absences from home began to arouse the 
suspicions of his mother, who caused inquiries to be made, 
with the result that one fine day she called upon Madame 
Rancon, overwhelmed her with reproaches and insults, 
and concluded by threatening to denounce both her and 
Jeanne to the cure of the parish for compassing the moral 
and material ruin of her son. This was a menace not to 
be treated lightly, as in those days the parochial clergy 
were invested with considerable powers, and the police 
were in the habit of committing persons to prison on their 
application, 1 and, consequently, Madame Rancon lost no 
time in invoking the protection of the commissary of her 
quarter. 

The affair does not appear to have proceeded any 

1 On the other hand, the police appear to have exercised a very 
strict supervision over the conduct of the clergy, both regular and 
secular, and to have promptly brought any irregularities which they 
discovered to the notice of the ecclesiastical authorities. 

18 



MADAME DU BARRY 

further, though a lengthy proces-verbal was drawn up, 
which, in later years, was brought to light and furnished 
the enemies of the future Comtesse du Barry with one of 
their favourite weapons. 

Shortly after the Lametz episode, Jeanne became lady's 
companion, or femme-de-chambre, to the widow of a 
farmer-general named La Garde, who resided at a villa 
called the Cour-Neuve, in the suburbs of Paris. Pidansat 
de Mairobert, the chronicler in whom the Goncourts 
repose such misplaced confidence, asserts that she was 
indebted for this post to the Picpus monk, Gomard, 
whom most writers now believe to be the father of 
Jeanne, but whom he metamorphoses into her paternal 
uncle. Gomard had now entered the priesthood, and, 
according to Pidansat, had been appointed private 
chaplain to Madame de la Garde ; but M. Vatel, 
who carefully examined the papers of the La Garde 
family, declares that he was never in any way connected 
with it. 

M. Vatel's researches enabled him to demolish another 
fiction, which had long obtained credence. The story 
went that Madame de la Garde had two sons, both young 
men, residing with her, that the lads fell in love with 
Jeanne and quarrelled violently about her, and that, in 
order to restore tranquillity, their mother was compelled 
to turn her out of the house. 

M. Vatel says that Madame de la Garde certainly had 
two sons, Nicolas and Francois Pierre, but they were not 
romantic youths, but middle-aged and married men, 
occupying responsible positions, Nicolas being, like his 
father before him, a farmer-general, and Francois Pierre 
a maitre des requites. Moreover, they did not reside with 
their mother, but had separate establishments of their 

*9 



MADAME DU BARRY 

own, the elder living in the Place Louis-le-Grand and the 
younger in the Rue Neuve du Luxembourg. 1 

From demoiselle de compagnie Jeanne became demoiselle 
de boutique. Towards the close of the year 1760, or at 
the beginning of 1 761, she left Madame de la Garde, and 
was apprenticed by her parents — apparently under the 
name of Mademoiselle Lange, or l'Ange — to a man- 
milliner called Labille, in the Rue Neuve des Petits- 
Champs. 2 In establishments of this kind pretty girls 
were exposed to endless temptations, and it would have 
needed one of much more austere virtue than poor Jeanne 
to have successfully resisted the assaults of the gilded 
youths, who, under the pretext of purchasing lace ruffles, 
cravats, and so forth, frequented the shop and " ogled the 
demoiselles from morn till eve." That she had several 
lovers at this time is not disputed, though none of them 
seem to have been of sufficient social importance to call 
for the attention of contemporary writers. 

Jeanne does not appear to have remained long at 
Labille's shop, and little is known of her life during the 
next two or three years, in which some writers assert that 
she sank so low as to become a woman of the town, and 
even for a time an inmate of an establishment kept by a 
notorious entremetteuse called La Gourdan. M. Vatel 
discusses this very unpleasant question at considerable 
length, and his conclusion is that the charge is devoid of 
foundation and was a mere invention of the Choiseul 
party, about whose methods of warfare we shall have 

1 Histoire de Madame du Barry, i. 41, et seq. 

2 And not in the Rue Saint-Honore, where so many writers have 
located it. The account given by the Goncourts of Madame du Barry 
passing the shop on her way to the scaffold in 1793, and gazing 
pathetically up at the girls crowding to the windows to catch a glimpse 
of the ex-milliner, is a myth. 

90 



MADAME DU BARRY 

occasion to speak hereafter. 1 The register of loose 
women, he says, was kept by the police with minute 
exactitude, but it contains no name resembling any of 
those by which Jeanne Becu was at different periods 
known. Moreover, when in 1776 the woman Gourdan, 
having been indiscreet enough to allow the wife of a 
magistrate to make assignations at her house, was haled 
before the Tournelle, or Criminal Court of the Parlia- 
ment of Paris, the ledger containing the names of all 
her pensionnaires for many years past was impounded. 
M. Vatel is of opinion that if Madame du Barry's had 
appeared therein, it would have been made known, as 
she was then in disgrace, and no one was interested in 
defending her. 2 

Upon so very delicate a subject we naturally prefer not 
to dwell, and will, therefore, merely remark that M. Vatel, 
in his zealous championship of Madame du Barry, appears 
to entirely ignore the possibility that a person who is 
known to have had at least three aliases might very 
well have had others, which have escaped the notice of 
historians. 

But if, for lack of evidence, we must acquit Jeanne 
B6cu of having been a woman of the town, there can be 
no possible doubt that during these years she had become 
one of those who, as M. Vatel delicately expresses it, 
"ignore the obligations of virtue without having the 

1 Sara Goudard, in her Remarques sur les Anecdotes concernant Madame 
du Barry, relates that in the early days of Jeanne's favour, when the 
Choiseul party were making desperate efforts to prevent her presentation 
at Court, a stranger came to La Gourdan and offered her a large sum of 
money if she would publicly attest that the new favourite had been one 
of her pensionnaires, but that the woman refused, " as she would not 
consent to publish such a lie." 

Histoire de Madame du Barry, i. 57, et sea. 

21 



MADAME DU BARRY 

excuse of passion" ; in other words, that she was a femme 
entretenue in the very fullest acceptation of the term. 
According to Soulavie — not, however, a writer in whom 
much confidence is now reposed — a M. Lavauvenardiere 
was the first amant en titre of the lady ; while other 
chroniclers mention an Abbe de Bonnac, a Colonel de 
Marcieu, and a M. Duval, a clerk in the Marine, as 
among her protectors. 

Towards the close of 1763, Jeanne, who now called 
herself Mademoiselle Beauvarnier, or Beauvernier, seems 
to have been in the habit of frequenting a gambling-house 
in the Rue de Bourbon, kept by a " Marquise" Duquesnoy 
— gambling-houses were the favourite haunt of the filles 
galantes of those days — and it was here apparently that 
she encountered Jean du Barry, the man with whose 
assistance she was one day to rise " from the dregs to the 
zenith of her profession." 

Jean du Barry, who was at this time in his fortieth year, 
was a member of an old family in Languedoc, which 
traced its descent back to the beginning of the fifteenth 
century. His father, Antoine du Barry, had been a brave 
soldier, who had served with distinction in the War of the 
Spanish Succession and retired from the army with the 
Cross of Saint-Louis. Married in 1748 to a Mademoiselle 
de Verongrese, " a handsome and honest person, who had 
nothing to say to the shameful conduct of her husband," 
Jean speedily wearied of his wife and the monotony of 
provincial life, and, two years later, came to Paris, calling 
himself the Comte du Barry-C6res, though he had no 
claim whatever to any title. Endowed with a handsome 
presence, imperturbable assurance, a ready wit, 1 and an 

1 One day at Spa, Jean du Barry was keeping a faro bank and 
watching very closely to avoid being cheated. He appeared to enter- 

2? 



MADAME DU BARRY 

amusing Gascon accent, he succeeded in making a favour- 
able impression on the Marquis de Rouille, then Minister 
for Foreign Affairs, and was despatched on secret missions 
to England, Germany, and Russia. Rouille, however, 
resigned office in 1757, and his successors, Bernis and 
Choiseul, turned a deaf ear to Du Barry's applications for 
further employment, though, as some compensation for 
the forced abandonment of his diplomatic ambitions, he 
contrived to obtain contracts both for the army and navy, 
and an interest in the supply of provisions to the troops 
in Corsica. 

With the profits of his contracts he plunged into all 
kinds of debauchery and dissipation, and the infamy of 
his life was such as to astonish even the depraved society 
amid which he moved and earn for him the sobriquet of 
the " Roue." From the police reports of the time it would 
appear that he was in the habit of introducing young beau- 
ties of humble station — generally unfortunate girls whom 
he had himself seduced and then grown weary of — to the 
haunts of fashionable vice, in the expectation of their 
attracting the attention of some wealthy libertine, in which 
event Du Barry seldom failed to reap a substantial profit 
from his speculation. Madame du Hausset tells us that 
on one occasion, during the regime of Madame de Pompa- 
dour, he had aspired to provide Louis XV. with a mistress, 
in return for which service he had the impertinence to 
demand the post of Minister to Cologne. 

tain some suspicion of the Electress Dowager of Saxony, who was one 
of the players, and the princess expressed her amazement that he should 
believe her capable of any irregularity. " A thousand pardons, 
Madame," exclaimed Du Barry. " My suspicions could not possibly 
refer to you. You royal personages never cheat for anything but 
crowns," 

*3 



MADAME DU BARRY 

"I went one day to the comedy at Compiegne," she 
says, * ' and Madame (de Pompadour) having put some 
questions to me about the play, inquired if there were 
many people present, and whether I had not remarked a 
very pretty young lady. I replied that there was, in fact, 
in a box near mine, a young woman who was surrounded 
by all the young gentlemen of the Court. She smiled 
and said : * That was Mademoiselle Dorothee ; she has 
been this evening to sup with the King, and will go to- 
morrow to the chase. You are astonished to see me so 
well informed, but I know still more. She was brought 
here by a Gascon, whose name is Du Barre or Du Barry, 
and who is the greatest scoundrel in France. He founds 
his hopes on the charms of Mademoiselle Dorothee, which 
he imagines the King will not be able to resist. She is 
really very pretty. I have had an opportunity of seeing 
her in my garden, to which they brought her under pre- 
text of taking a stroll. She is the daughter of a water- 
carrier at Strasburg, and her adorer demands, to begin 
with, to be made Minister at Cologne.' "* 

This intrigue was promptly nipped in the bud by Lebel, 
the King's confidential valet-de-chambre, who had the 
management of his royal master's love-affairs, and had no 
mind to allow a stranger to usurp his functions ; and M. 
du Barry and his protegee were compelled to return to 
Paris empty-handed. 

The " Rout" struck by Jeanne's beauty, " invited 
her to take charge of his house and do the honours 
of it," as he himself euphemistically expresses it. 2 She, 
on her part, we may well believe, was ready enough 
to entertain his proposal, as he enjoyed the reputation 

1 Mtmoires de Madame du Hausset (edit. 1891), p. 62. 
8 Letter of Jean du Barry to Malesherbes. 
I 2 4 



MADAME DU BARRY 

of being exceedingly liberal to the ladies whom he 
honoured with his attentions, and was said to " cover 
them with gold and diamonds " ; x and Jeanne's partiality 
for jewellery amounted to an absolute passion — a passion 
which was one day to bring her to the guillotine. 

Mademoiselle Beauvarnier and her mother accordingly 
took up their residence with Du Barry, at his house in 
the Rue Neuve Saint-Eustache, whence they subsequently 
removed to one in the Rue de Jussieu. The presence of 
Madame Ranc^on was presumably intended to disguise 
the nature of the relations which existed between her 
daughter and the " count," but, if such were the object 
in view, it would not appear to have been attained, as the 
following entry in the Journal de la Police will testify : 

"December 14, 1764. — The Marquis du Barry, who 
was responsible for having brought la belle Dorothee 2 from 
Strasburg to Paris, and for having given the demoiselle 
Beauvoisin her start in life, exhibited last Monday, in his 
box at the Comedie Italienne, the demoiselle Veauvernier 
(sic)> his mistress. She is a person nineteen years old, 
tall, well-made, and of distinguished appearance, with a 
very pretty face. No doubt he intends to dispose of 
her (brocanter) advantageously. When he begins to 
weary of a woman, he invariably has recourse to this 
expedient. But, at the same time, it must be admitted 
that he is a connoisseur, and that his merchandise is 
always salable." 

Soon after Jeanne became Du Barry's mistress her 
name underwent a third modification. The "Roue"* 
considered that Beauvarnier was not a sufficiently aristo- 
cratic patronymic, so he transformed it into Vaubernier, 

1 Manuel's La Police dlvoU'ee^ i. 231. 
a See p. 24, supra. 
2 S 



MADAME DU BARRY 

with a territorial prefix, and the young lady became 
Mademoiselle de Vaubernier. 1 

Of Jeanne's life with the " Roue " we have few details. 
Montigny tells us that she never went out on foot, but 
drove about in a coach, accompanied by two children, 
"who were not her own," but whom all the tradesmen 
with whom she dealt declared " quelle tenoit dans la plus 
grande dhence?'" 2. From the police reports we learn that 
she was on terms of great intimacy with a certain 
Comtesse La Rena, described as u a married woman living 
apart from her husband, and enjoying an income of about 
25,000 livres, the proceeds of her galanteries^ principally 
with Milord Marche, 3 who had conceived so violent a 
passion for her that he had lived with her seven years in 
England"; 4 while she also frequented the house of a 
Mademoiselle Legrand, a courtesan who affected literary 
society, and whom Dumouriez, in his Mdmoires, compares 
to Ninon de l'Enclos. Here she was in the habit of 

1 She also appears to have been known as Mademoiselle l'Ange, " on 
account of her celestial face," says Lauzun, and, on occasion, to have 
masqueraded as her protector's wife. Thus, in May 1767, we find her 
laying a complaint before a police-commissary against a dressmaker 
named litienne, who had appropriated a piece of Indian muslin which 
had been sent her to make into a gown, and used abusive language and 
threats towards the " Roui's" son, Adolphe, who had been deputed to 
remonstrate with her. In this document we find the lady styling her- 
self " Dame Jeanne de Vaubernier, spouse of Messire Jean Comte du 
Barry." 

2 Les illustres victimes vengies. 

3 William Douglas, Earl of Marche, afterwards fourth Duke of 
Queensberry, the notorious " Old Q." 

4 " I have had Lord Marche and the Rena here for one night, which 
does not raise my reputation in the neighbourhood."—- Horace Walpolc 
to Conway, September 9, 1762. 

26 



MADAME DU BARRY 

meeting a circle of wits and men of letters : Cr kbillon Ji/s 
— the author of some of the most licentious romances ever 
penned, one of which, Le Sopha, so shocked Madame de 
Pompadour's sense of propriety that she caused him to be 
banished from Paris — Colle, Guibert, and Favier. 

At Du Barry's own house, too, Jeanne became ac- 
quainted with several of the most celebrated personages of 
her time, for the u Rou6" consummate scoundrel though 
he was, was, notwithstanding, a man of considerable attain- 
ments and charm of manner, and an admirable host. 
Among his visitors were that ever-green sinner, the Due 
de Richelieu, the Due de Duras, his alter ego the Due de 
Nivernais, whom Lord Chesterfield held up as a model 
for his son to form himself upon, 1 and the Prince de 
Ligne, whose connection with the lady is interesting, if 
only for the striking portrait which he has left us of her : 

" She is tall, well-made, ravishingly fair, with an open 
forehead, fine eyes, pretty lashes, an oval face with little 
moles upon the cheeks, which only serve to enhance her 
beauty, an aquiline nose, a laughing mouth, a clear skin, 
and a bosom with which most would be wise to shun 
comparison." 2 

Another celebrity whose acquaintance " Mademoiselle 

1 " I send you here enclosed a letter of recommendation to the Duke 
of Nivernais, the French Ambassador at Rome, who is, in my opinion, 
one of the prettiest men I ever knew in my life. I do not know a 
better model for you to form yourself upon ; pray observe and frequent 
him as much as you can. He will show you what manners and graces 
are." — Letter of July 6, 1749. 

2 Here is another contemporary portrait of the lady : " Madame du 
Barry was truly pretty ; beautiful head, beautiful eyes, beautiful hair of 
an ashen grey hue ; beautiful, rounded arms and divine handsj her 
enchanting smile charmed every one." — Souvenirs de Jeanne Etienne 
Desprfaux^ p. 14. 

37 



MADAME DU BARRY 

de Vaubernier' made at this time was that sentimental 
libertine, the Due de Lauzun. Lauzun, who was then in 
quest of consolation for his rejection at the hands of the 
beautiful Lady Sarah Bunbury, met Jeanne at one of the 
Opera balls and accepted an invitation from the " Rout " 
to sup at his house, where his host, who was suffering from 
inflammation of the eyes, received him in a superb robe- 
de-chambre, with his hat on his head, to keep in place two 
baked apples, which some quack had recommended as a 
remedy for his complaint. The house was in good taste, 
and among the guests were several very pretty women, 
one of whom, a Madame de Fontanelle, " had come from 
Lyons with the design of becoming the mistress of the 
King, and of the first person who might ask her in the 
interim." Mademoiselle de Vaubernier was very gracious 
to Lauzun, who expresses his conviction that she would 
have been " more than willing " to consider any proposal 
he might have cared to make. However, the affair went 
no further than a flirtation. 1 

Scandal, indeed, attributes several lovers to Jeanne 
during this period — the Comte de Fitz-James, a M. 
d'Arcambal, a rich financier, and Radix de Sainte-Foy, 
Treasurer of the Marine, 2 are among those upon whom 

1 Mimoires du Due de. Lauzun (edit. 1858), p. 78. 

2 ""January 29, 1768. — . . . The demoiselle Beauvarnier, mistress, or 
rather vache a lait, of the sieur du Barry. It is M. de Sainte-Foy, 
Treasurer of the Marine, whom this last-named person is at present 
engaged in ' fleecing,' under the good pleasure of the sieur du Barry." — 
fetat desfemmes et jilles galantes, cited by M. Vatel. 

When Madame du Barry became the mistress of Louis XV., that 
monarch is said to have remarked to the Due de Noailles, " I am told 
that I have succeeded M. de Sainte-Foy." To which the witty courtier 
retorted, " Just as your Majesty succeeded Pharamond," implying that 
there had been a good many others in between. — Sismondi's Histoire 
des Frangais, xxix. 401. 

a3 



MADAME DU BARRY 

she is reported to have bestowed her favours ; while 
Senac de Meilhan says that it soon became quite le bon 
air " to have supped at least with her." These suppers, 
with a little game of lansquenet, brelan, or passe-passe to 
follow, must, we fear, have proved somewhat costly expe- 
riences for the lady's admirers, and the " Roui " had, no 
doubt, good reason to congratulate himself upon his 
bargain. However, as the next chapter will show, the 
time was not far distant when Jeanne was to establish 
infinitely greater claims upon the gratitude of her scoun- 
drelly protector. 



19 



CHAPTER III 

First meeting between Louis XV. and Jeanne Becu — Imme- 
diate and complete subjugation of the King — He desires a 
husband to be procured for his new mistress — The " Roue " 
goes to visit his family — And brings his brother, Guillaume 
du Barry, to Paris — Contract of marriage between " Comte " 
Guillaume du Barry and Jeanne "Gomard de Vaubernier" — 
The " Roue " discovers his family's connection with the Irish 
house of Barrymore — The religious ceremony, September i, 
1768 — Wholesale falsification of documents — Guillaume du 
Barry and Madeleine Lemoine — Madame du Barry at Fon- 
tainebleau — Letter of Mercy-Argenteau to Kaunitz. 

A great deal of conflicting evidence exists in regard to 
the first meeting of Louis XV. and Jeanne Becu, The 
general opinion of their contemporaries appears to have 
been that the lady's charms were brought to his Majesty's 
notice by the valet-de-chambre Lebel, the indefatigable 
purveyor of the Parc-aux-Cerfs, at the solicitation of the 
" Roue" According to one story, Lebel invited Jeanne, 
Radix de Sainte-Foy, her lover of the moment, and some 
other persons to sup with him in his apartments at Ver- 
sailles, where the King, who had been an unseen spectator 
of the banquet, " through a secret window made in the 
dining-room wall," was so enraptured with her beauty and 
vivacity that he ordered her to be brought to him the 
following day, or, according to other versions, the same 
evening. 1 

1 Dutens's Memoires d'un voyageur qui se repose (edit. 1806), ii. 36. 



MADAME DU BARRY 

A more probable solution of the question, however, 
which attributes the meeting to accident, is to be found in 
a letter written by Jean du Barry, in 1776, to Malesherbes, 
then Minister of the Household to Louis XVI. The 
"Roue," who on the death of Louis XV. had been 
promptly exiled, was desirous of visiting Paris, " in order 
to see his doctor, his oculist, and his creditors " ; and, in 
the hope of securing permission to do so, enters into a 
sort of justification of his life, including an explanation of 
his share in the introduction of " Mademoiselle de Vau- 
bernier " to the late King. Here is what he says on the 
matter : 

" Having at that time no other care than that of watch- 
ing over the education of my son, page to the King, who 
possessed but indifferent health, I withdrew into a very 
limited circle of acquaintances. And it was then that L 
begged Madame Ran^on and her daughter, Mademoiselle 
Vaubernier, to take charge of my house and do the 
honours of it, a task which they performed for several 
years with kindness and intelligence. 

" Moved by gratitude, and with a view to providing 
for their future, I then surrendered to them my interest 
in the provisioning of Corsica, which they enjoyed for 
some months. 

" The new arrangements made by M. de Choiseul 
having deprived them of this, they solicited from him its 
continuance ; and it was in the course of the different 
journeys which he required them to make to Versailles 
that Mademoiselle Vaubernier attracted the attention of 
the late King. M. Lebel received his orders, and the 
latter, with whom neither she nor myself had any 
acquaintance, arranged matters with her alone . . . ." 1 
1 Revue de Paris, November 1836. 
31 



MADAME DU BARRY 

Although the above version of the affair is quite in 
accordance with the habits of his Most Christian Majesty, 
who, d'Argenson tells us, was accustomed to " throw the 
handkerchief" to any pretty young girl or woman he 
might chance to see at Mass or elsewhere, 1 we should 
hesitate to accept it, since it was so obviously to the 
writer's interest to minimise his part in the transaction. 
But, as it happens, his account is confirmed by two inde- 
pendent chroniclers, Sara Goudard and Montigny ; while 
we learn from the unpublished Memoirs of Choiseul 2 that 
Jeanne did actually visit the Minister at Versailles, on 
two occasions, in reference to the matter mentioned by 
Du Barry. 

But whether it was accident or design which threw 
Jeanne across the path of Louis XV., it is beyond question 
that the old King's subjugation was immediate and com- 
plete. The secret of the extraordinary fascination which 

1 "February 13, 1753. — The King is indulging in passades ; he 
throws the handkerchief to young girls and women whom he perceives 
at Mass or at the grand convert. Bachelier, his old prime minister 
(Lebel's predecessor), brings them to him. A young beauty of Mont- 
pellier, daughter of the President Nicquet, with whom I am acquainted, 
has lately * taken the leap ' (sautie le pas), and is still at Versailles ; she 
expects to become mattress e diclaree." 

2 These memoirs, which must not be confused with the Memoires de 
M. le due de Choiseul, ecrits par lui-meme, printed at Choiseul's private 
press at Chanteloup in 1773, and published in 1790, are declared by 
M. Vatel to be " as authentic as important," and such would appear to 
be the opinion of most historians, including, among recent writers, 
M. Pierre de Nolhac. On the other hand, Ritter von Arneth and 
M. Flammermont, in a note to their Correspondance secrhe du Comte de 
Mercy-Argenteau avec I'Empereur Joseph II. et le Prince von Kaunitz 
(Paris, 1896), assert that they are spurious. Whether the memoirs are 
genuine or not, however, there can be no question that they are the 
work of some one intimately acquainted with the Court of Louis XV., 
and, if not written by Choiseul, largely inspired by him. 

32 



MADAME DU BARRY 

she exercised over him, and continued to exercise to the 
day of his death, lay not so much in her physical charms, 
great as these undoubtedly were, but in her high spirits, 
her unfailing good-humour, and, above all, in her absolute 
freedom from affectation. " Instead of imitating the great 
ladies who bored the King, she showed herself just as she 
was, under the aspect of a veritable courtesan, with all 
the cynicism, animation, and refinements of her trade. 
Louis XV. felt his jaded senses revive as if by a miracle. 
He was enchanted by it. The new favourite seemed to 
him an exceptional being. He determined to cover her 
with a rain of gold and jewels, and make her the first 
femme entretenue in France — in all Europe." 1 

It was in the early days of July 1768, that the events 
of which we have just spoken occurred, and the Court was 
on the point of setting out on its annual visit to Com- 
piegne. Louis XV. was naturally desirous that his new 
conquest should follow him thither. But, as a demoiselle, 
particularly one of humble birth, could not well perform 
the functions of a royal mistress without risk of grave 
scandal — it was a sort of unwritten law that the favourite 
must be a married and titled woman — he decided that a 
husband with the necessary qualifications must be found 
for her without delay, and communicated his wishes to 
Jean du Barry, through the medium of Lebel. 2 

1 Imbert de Saint-Amand's Les Fetnmes de Versailles : Les derniires 
annees de Louis XV., p. 23. 

2 The monarch's infatuation for Mademoiselle de Vaubernier by no 
means commended itself to this worthy, to whose interest it was to 
keep his royal master supplied with a constant succession of charmers. 
So angry was he that he took upon himself to remonstrate vehemently 
with his Majesty, who, highly incensed at his presumption, threatened 
to strike him with the fire-irons if he did not at once desist. This 

33 <? 



MADAME DU BARRY 

So lucrative a role as that of honorary consort to the 
King's new mistress would have suited the "Roud" admir- 
ably, but, unfortunately, he was debarred from playing it, 
his neglected wife being still in the flesh. However, 
there was no necessity to let the post pass out of his sphere 
of influence, as he had a bachelor brother, Guillaume by 
name, a needy officer or ex-officer of Marines, who lived 
with his widowed mother and his two sisters at the 
family-seat of the Du Barrys, at Levignac, near Toulouse, 
and who seemed expressly made for the occasion. 1 

The good folk at Levignac had not seen their relative 
for years, and were, in consequence, not a little astonished 
when one day he descended upon them, informed them 
that he had come to make all their fortunes, and carried 
the whole family off to Toulouse, where, before a notary 
named Sens, the old lady signed a procuration authorising 
Guillaume du Barry "to contract a marriage with any 
person whom he should judge suitable, on the express 
understanding that the said dame should not be required 
to make any provision for her son on the occasion of the 
said marriage." 

This formality completed, Jean, the intended bride- 
groom, and their two sisters, all set out for Paris, travel- 
ling in such frantic haste as to suggest the possibility of 
there being some other candidate for Mademoiselle de 

threat, we are told, affected M. Lebel so deeply as to bring on an 
attack of colic, whereof he died two days later. 

1 Jeanne du Barry had another brother Nicolas, called Elie, and a third 
sister who had married a peasant of Levignac, named Filieuse. The 
two sisters who lived with their mother had been baptized respectively 
Francoise and Marthe, but were known by the sobriquets of " Chon " 
and " Bitschi." The elder, " Chon" was a young woman of considerable 
intelligence, and, according to Pidansat de Mairobert, contributed to 
the Mercure. 

34 



MADAME DU BARRY 

Vaubernier's hand in the field ; and, on July 23, the day- 
after their arrival in the capital, the marriage contract was 
duly executed. 1 

A more amazing piece of impudence than this contract 
it would be difficult to conceive. 

The future husband, who had been plain Guillaume du 
Barry in the procuration signed at Toulouse, becomes 
" high and puissant seigneur, messire Guillaume, Comte 
du Barry, son of the deceased messire Antoine, Comte 
du Barry, and of the dame Catherine Delacaze, his 
spouse." 

The "Roue" arrogates to himself even more imposing 
qualifications, and is not only a high and puissant seigneur, 
but the holder of a presumably important office under 
the Crown, Governor of Livignac, to wit. Levignac, it 
may be mentioned, was a little village, which probably did 
not contain a single house of any size apart from the 
chateau of the Du Barrys. 

But the most startling transformation is reserved for 
the future bride, who not only changes her name for the 
fourth time, but invents, or has invented for her, a father 
to bear it, and styles herself " the demoiselle Jeanne 
Gomard de Vaubernier, a minor, daughter of the dame 
Ran^on and of the sieur Jean Jacques Gomard de Vau- 
bernier, interested in the affairs of the King, her jirst 
husband" 

As may be anticipated, the body of this precious docu- 
ment is in keeping with the preamble. 

It provides that there should be no community of 

goods between the parties, but that the wife should charge 

herself with all the expenses of the minage : food, rent, 

table-linen, household utensils, keep of horses, and so 

1 M. Lenotre's Vkilles maisons, vieux papers, 197 et seq. 

35 



MADAME DU BARRY 

forth, and with the maintenance and education of the 
children born of the marriage ! In return for this, the 
husband was to make her an annual allowance of 6000 
livres, payable half-yearly and in advance, in addition to a 
sum of 1000 livres per annum which he is declared to 
have already settled upon her. 

A paper annexed to the contract reveals the lady's 
fondness for jewellery and fine raiment. It states that 
she possesses diamonds (collar, aigrette earrings, &c.) to 
the value of 16,000 livres ; English, Brussels, and Valen- 
ciennes lace worth 6000 livres ; thirty silk gowns, two 
dozen corsets, and other articles of apparel in proportion. 
Altogether her property is valued at 30,000 livres, which 
is declared to be "the result of her earnings and 
economies." 

In order to sustain the titles and dignities which the 
Du Barrys had bestowed upon themselves, a coat-of-arms 
was, of course, required ; but the inventive genius of the 
" Roud " was fully equal to the occasion. He instituted 
researches into his genealogy, and quickly discovered that 
his family was a branch of the old Irish house of Barry- 
more, the arms and motto of which — Boutez-en-avant — 
the " Comtesse" du Barry forthwith assumed and retained 
for the rest of her life. 1 

1 The family of Barry of Barry's Court, Viscounts Buttevant and 
Earls of Barrymore, traced their descent back to one William de Barri, 
of Norman origin. William de Barri's eldest son, Robert, accompanied 
Robert Fitz-Stephen to Ireland in 11 69, to assist Dermot, King of 
Leinster, to regain his throne, and, after a series of exploits which earned 
for him the name of Barry-more, was slain at Lismore, about the year 
1 185. He was succeeded by his brother, Philip de Barry, whose son, 
David, became Viscount Buttevant. One of David's lineal descendants, 
another David de Barri, was created Earl of Barrymore in 1628, as a 
reward for his fidelity to English interests. The title became extinct 

36 



MADAME DU BARRY 

The religious ceremony, indispensable at this period to 
the validity of a marriage, was postponed until Septem- 
ber i — M. Vatel thinks on account of the illness and 
death of Lebel, who had died on August 17 — when it 
took place at the Church of Saint-Laurent, at five o'clock 
in the morning, in order to avoid undesirable publicity. 
The mysterious Gomard, the ex-Picpus, the soi-disant 
uncle and presumed father of Jeanne, 1 appeared to repre- 
sent the stepfather and mother of the bride, resplendent 
in "a frock of maroon bouracan with gold buttons, coat, 
vest, and breeches of Lille camelot, and a cassock and 
cloak of Saint-Maur cloth," 2 and, not to be outdone by 
the Du Barrys, gave a false Christian name — he had lent 
his own to the mythical brother, Gomard de Vaubernier — 
and had the impudence to style himself " Almoner to the 
King." 

The marriage contract had been, as we have seen, a 
tissue of lies ; the documents connected with the religious 
ceremony were infinitely worse. Proofs of Jeanne's claim 

on the death of the eighth earl without issue in 1824. — Burke's 
" Dormant and Extinct Peerages," p. 24, et seq. 

It is worth noting that the then Earl of Barrymore, Richard Barry, 
the sixth holder of the title, acknowledged Madame du Barry's claim, 
but, according to Mr. J. B. Robinson ("The Last Earls of Barry- 
more," p. 146), he was wrong in so doing, though his supposition that 
he had collateral relatives in France was correct. " The French 
branch," says the author, " is another family altogether, the present 
(1894) representative of which is the Comte Barry de Mervel (Chateau 
de Mervel, Seine-Inferieure), whose ancestor accompanied James II. 
into exile." 

1 He seems to have been now known as the Abb6 Gomard and to 
have been assistant-priest at Saint-Eustache. 

2 Apparently the gift of the bride, as these articles figure in an 
account rendered to Madame du Barry about this time by Carlier, the 
tailor who made her servants' liveries. 

37 



MADAME DU BARRY 

to be the legitimate daughter of the aforementioned 
Gomard de Vaubernier, " interested in the affairs of the 
King," were, of course, required ; and to furnish these 
wholesale forgery was resorted to. Two certificates were 
produced. The first, which purported to be signed by 
the vicar of Vaucouleurs and witnessed by the provost of 
the town, stated that Jeanne had been born on August 19, 
1746, instead of 1743, from the marriage of Jeanne 
B6cu, otherwise known as Quantigny, and Jean Jacques 
Gomard de Vaubernier. (It is upon this document 
that the erroneous information in regard to Madame 
du Barry's origin to be found in so many works of 
reference is based.) The second declared that the said 
Vaubernier had died in September 1749, at Vaucouleurs, 
in the presence of his " father-in-law," Fabien Becu, 
who had, as a matter of fact, died himself four years 
earlier. 

Falsification of documents in those days was punished 
by the galleys, and, in cases where the intention was to 
deceive the King, by death. Why then, it may be asked, 
were the " RouJ" and his accomplices so ready to brave 
the terrors of the law, and who was the instigator of these 
shameful frauds ? It is, in our opinion, absurd to ascribe 
them, as some writers do, to the impudence of Jean du 
Barry, who was far too astute a personage to commit 
such an act, unless he were well assured of absolute im- 
punity. The matter, we fear, must always remain obscure, 
but there is grave reason to believe that Louis XV. himself 
was an accessory ; in other words, that when he had 
insisted on his mistress's marriage he had given her to 
understand that if her friends saw fit to exercise their 
inventive talents on her behalf it would not be altogether 
displeasing to him. 

38 



MADAME DU BARRY 

Madame du Barry and her de jure husband parted at 
the church door, and do not appear to have ever set eyes 
on one another again. The latter, who immediately after 
the nuptial ceremony had received, as the price of his 
complaisance, a brevet conferring a pension of 5000 livres 
upon him, did not, as the Goncourts, M. Vatel and Mr. 
Douglas all state, return the same day to Toulouse. He 
remained in Paris, installed himself in a fine apartment in 
the Rue de Bourgogne, and proceeded to enjoy life. To 
console himself for the loss of his wife, he formed a liaison 
with a damsel of nineteen, named Madeleine Lemoine, who 
lived on the other side of the street, and is described by a 
contemporary as "a piquant brunette, with magnificent 
eyes, a pretty mouth, and teeth of dazzling whiteness," 1 
and who, in the course of the following year, presented 
him with a son. To Guillaume's credit it should be 
added that he seems to have been genuinely attached to 
Mademoiselle Lemoine, as he remained faithful to her for 
the rest of his life, and soon after his wife's death, in 
1793, married her, "in order to assure his name to the 
woman to whom he was united by ties of gratitude and 
esteem." 2 

At Compiegne, whither Madame du Barry had followed 
the Court after the signing of the marriage contract, her 
relations with the King appear to have been conducted 
with a certain amount of discretion, and to have aroused 
but little comment. But when, at the beginning of 
October, the Court migrated, as usual, to Fontainebleau, 
the new favourite was given a suite of apartments in the 
chateau itself, and his Majesty's attentions to her became 

1 Souvenirs cftine actrice, Louise Fusil, cited by M. Len6tre in Vieilles 
maisons, vieux papiers, p. 205. 2 Ibid. p. 215. 

39 



MADAME DU BARRY 

so very marked that nothing else was spoken of, and the 
Austrian Ambassador, Mercy- Argenteau, deemed it advis- 
able to send the following report of the affair to his 
Government : 

Mercy to Kaunitz. 

u Fontainebleau, November I, 1768. 

" Monseigneur, — I believe I ought to render to your 
Highness a full account of certain circumstances which 
have arisen at this Court, and which appear to me likely 
to effect objects too important not to merit your attention. 
A person named Du Barry, Breton 1 gentleman, great 
intriguer, broker of the pleasures of M. de Richelieu and 
several others, lived for some years with a creature whom 
he delivered over to his acquaintances for a pecuniary 
consideration, when the state of his finances obliged him 
to have recourse to such expedients. This Du Barry, at 
length, after having married his concubine to one of his 
brothers, found means, through the instrumentality of the 
first valet-de-chamhre^ named Lebel, to introduce her to 
the King shortly before the last visit to Compiegne, 
whither this woman followed the Court, and was lodged 
in a private house. This first appearance occasioned but 
little sensation, but, shortly afterwards, one saw the new 
favourite in possession of a very elegant equipage and a 
very handsomely furnished lodging. Then some young 
gentlemen of the Court sought to introduce themselves to 
her, in order to pay their respects. The Sieur du Barry 
made, in the meanwhile, researches into his genealogy, 
and discovered that he was descended from the ancient 

1 Mercy was, of course, misinformed ; Jean du Barry was a 
Languedocien. 

40 



MADAME DU BARRY 

Irish family of Barrymore, whereof he assumed the arms, 
which one sees displayed on the carriage of Madame du 
Barry and on a very handsome sedan-chair, which she 
makes use of in the interior of the chateau. She is lodged 
in the court called des Fontaines, near the apartment which 
Madame de Pompadour used to occupy ; she has a 
number of servants and brilliant liveries, and on fete-days 
and Sundays one sees her at the King's Mass, in one 
of the chapels on the rez-de-chauss6e, which is reserved 
for her. 

"A treatment so different to that which would be 
accorded a simple girl augmented from day to day the 
attention of the courtiers. On my side, I took measures 
to inform myself of the tone which this woman adopts 
among her intimates. I ascertained that she was beginning 
to give herself airs of importance ; that she spoke of the 
Government and the Ministers, and of the great services 
which a favourite rendered the State by enlightening the 
King in regard to the vices of the administration. I 
ascertained further that this woman expected to be pub- 
licly presented at Court, and that a subordinate cabal, 
supported by some persons of more exalted rank, favoured 
this project ; that they had even sounded Me s dames de 
France} and that one of the Mesdames was of opinion 
that, however objectionable so indecent a presentation 
might be, it was, nevertheless, better to support it than 
to expose themselves to the danger of the King's re- 
marriage. 2 

1 The four unmarried daughters of Louis XV., Adelaide, Victoire, 
Sophie, and Louise. 

2 Mercy was mistaken ; Mesdames do not appear to have learned of 
their father's intrigue till later. Moreover, they opposed it strongly as 
soon as they found that it was something more than a galanterie. See 
p. 61, infra. 

41 



MADAME DU BARRY 

" The serious turn this affair was taking finally deter- 
mined me to speak of it to the Spanish Ambassador, who 
was but imperfectly informed in regard to it. We agreed 
that he should explain his views to M. de Choiseul, and 
he did so forthwith. But, to our profound astonishment, 
the Minister appeared, or wished to appear, ignorant of a 
great part of the circumstances of this intrigue, and M. de 
Fuentes experienced considerable difficulty in convincing 
him of it. He represented to M. de Choiseul how greatly 
the person of the King would be degraded by such a 
scandal ; he enlarged upon all the grievous consequences 
which would result from the re-establishment of a maitresse- 
en-titre\ Y finally, he succeeded in fixing the attention of 
M. de Choiseul upon this matter, and they deliberated on 
the means of averting the danger. M. de Fuentes pro- 
posed to compose a letter, which he should write to his 
Court, and which, having been intercepted, should be 
brought to the notice of his Most Christian Majesty. 
This expedient has been adopted and will be carried out. 
Independently of that, M. de Choiseul is resolved to seize 
an opportunity of speaking to the King about his new 
mistress ; to disclose to Him the true character of this 
creature ; to represent to Him how greatly the dignity of 
the monarchy will be injured in the public estimation if 
He gives publicity to the favour of a woman who cannot, 
or ought not, reasonably to serve any but the most secret 
pleasures. 

1 Both Mercy and Fuentes were deeply concerned for the mainten- 
ance of the status quo, as Choiseul was the devoted friend of Austria and 
Spain. Mercy had an additional reason for viewing the advent of 
a new favourite with apprehension, as he was at this time actively 
engaged in endeavouring to bring about a marriage between Louis XV. 
and the Archduchess Elizabeth of Austria, the elder sister of Marie 
Antoinette. 

42 



MADAME DU BARRY 

" Now, Monseigneur, you are in possession of this 
strange story, which I still flatter myself will prove 
but a transient affair. I am endeavouring to utilise it, 
through the medium of the Ambassador of Spain, in 
order to make M. de Choiseul understand how greatly 
it would be to the advantage both of the State and 
the King himself that this prince, who still clings 
to pleasures of the senses, should procure legitimate 
means, and liberate himself by a marriage from all 
these disorders, which are such a bad example for the 
Royal Family, a source of intrigues so disturbing to 
the Ministers, and so injurious to the proper conduct 
of affairs. I cannot too highly praise the good will 
and zeal with which M. de Fuentes lends himself to 
the execution of all the measures which I suggest to 
him in regard to this matter, and which would be almost 
impossible, or, at any rate, very dangerous for me to 
employ myself. 

" Since writing my letter I have had a long conference 
with M. le Due de Choiseul on the matters of which my 
despatches treat to-day, and our conversation has taken 
so favourable a turn that I ended by speaking to him of 
Madame du Barry, under the pretext of friendship and 
attachment to his person. I repeated to him all that I 
had ascertained about this woman, and he professed him- 
self much indebted to me for this overture. He permitted 
himself to speak very freely to me of this intrigue, with 
which I perceive he is now much occupied, and even 
begged me to communicate to him everything that I may 
learn about it in the future, though he did not confide to 
me the measures which he proposes to take, and which, 
thanks to the Spanish Ambassador, I am acquainted with. 

43 



MADAME DU BARRY 

I have come to an understanding with the latter that we 
should act in concert, without allowing M. de Choiseul 
to become aware of it, and I hope, Monseigneur, that we 
shall succeed in co-operating in this way to good pur- 
pose. I shall exercise great care to avoid all imprudence 
in a matter so delicate." 1 

1 Correspondance secrke du Comte de Mercy- Argenteau avec PEmpereur 
Joseph II. et le Prince von Kaunifz, par le Chevalier d'Arnett et M. Jules 
Flammerraont (Paris, 1896), ii. 338, et seq. 



4f 



CHAPTER IV 

The Due de Choiseul — His unique position — His bitter 
hostility to the new favourite — Violence of Mesdames de 
Gramont, de Choiseul, and de Beauvau — A campaign of 
calumny — La Bourbonnaise — Production of La Bourbonnaise a 
la gutnguette — And of Beaunoir's Bourbonnaise — Other satires 
against Madame du Barry — Seditious placards — Choiseul 
determines to remonstrate with the King — But is dissuaded 
by the Austrian and Spanish Ambassadors — Indignation of 
Louis XV. at the attacks upon his mistress — He orders apart- 
ments to be prepared for her at Versailles. 

History affords us few instances of a statesman who 
with the aid of only moderate abilities has attained to 
such a position as the Due de Choiseul. 1 From the day 
on which he first entered the Council, as the nominee of 
Madame de Pompadour, at the close of 1757, his influence, 
thanks to his own self-confidence and resolution, the 
incapacity of his colleagues, and the indolence and apathy 
of the King, had gone on steadily increasing, until he had 
become, to all intents and purposes, master of France. 
He combined in his own person the functions of three 
departments, Foreign Affairs, the Army, and the Marine, 2 

1 We are aware that some French historians regard Choiseul as a 
great Minister, and such was undoubtedly the opinion of many of his 
contemporaries. But his qualities were more showy than solid, and, 
compared with the illustrious statesmen of the two preceding reigns, his 
record is poor indeed. 

\ The Marine was nominally held by Choiseul's cousin, the Due de 

45 



MADAME DU BARRY 

and even talked of taking charge of the Finances as well. 
He held the surintendance des postes^ an office which placed 
in his hands great and much-dreaded powers, as it enabled 
him to violate at will the sanctity of private correspond- 
ence. 1 He was colonel-general of the Gardes Suisses, a 
command usually reserved for Princes of the Blood, 
governor of the Invalides, governor-general of Touraine, 
and grand baitti of Hagueneau, and he also held several 
minor posts. His relatives and proteges filled all the 
most lucrative positions in the Army, the Diplomatic 
Service and the Church ; he lived in almost royal state, 
and enormous as was his official income, 2 his household 
expenses alone were believed to exceed it. 

Moreover, his credit abroad was immense. The foreign 
policy of Spain was conducted entirely on his advice ; 
Turkey looked to him for support against Russian 
aggression ; at Vienna he was regarded as the mainstay 
of the Franco-Austrian alliance, and he had but recently 
concluded the arrangements for a marriage between the 
Dauphin and the Archduchess Marie Antoinette. 

A Minister so circumstanced, one would suppose, 
could have afforded to regard the advent of a new mistress 
with equanimity ; but such was very far from being the 
case. Whether from genuine concern for the dignity of 
the Monarchy, which he believed would be irremediably 
degraded by association with a woman of so humble an 
origin and so unenviable a reputation, 3 or because he was 

Choiseul-Praslin, but he was a nonentity, and historians invariably speak 
of it as one of Choiseul's departments. 

1 See on this subject the Memoires de Madame du Hausset (edit. 1825), 
p. 105, and the author's "Madame de Pompadour," p. 291, et seq. 

2 Senac de Meilhan computes the income which Choiseul derived 
from his various offices at upwards of 700,000 livres. 

3 This was the popular view. " People imagined that it was on 

46 



MADAME DU BARRY 

apprehensive that Madame du Barry might develop a 
taste for political intrigue to his own detriment, or merely 
because his vanity was wounded by the King's omission 
to consult him in the matter, Choiseul from the very first 
evinced the bitterest hostility towards the lady. 

It may be doubted, however, if the Minister would 
have carried his enmity to the lengths which he did 
had it not been for the influence of his sister, Madame 
de Gramont. 

This haughty, ambitious, and intriguing woman, un- 
deterred by Louis XV. 's insensibility to her charms, had 
never ceased to persevere in her efforts to effect his subju- 
gation, and, aware that the feebleness of the monarch's 
character rendered it improbable that he would be for 
long able to withstand the resolution and daring with 
which she conducted her operations, had believed herself 
within measurable distance of success. Her fury and 
mortification, therefore, on seeing the prize for which she 
had so long striven snatched from her grasp by " a little 
girl of the streets," knew no bounds, and she and all the 
coterie which followed her inspirations pronounced against 
the favourite with the utmost violence. " She entreated 
her brother to show no yielding to the ignominy of this 
new power, and she braved the King and his mistress 
with an assured arrogance which was hardly justified by 
her own long-compromised virtue." 1 The gentle little 
Duchesse de Choiseul, jealous of her sister-in-law and 

moral and public grounds that the Due de Choiseul was opposed to 
Madame du Barry, and owing to this belief, devoid of foundation^ he 
became the idol of the magistrates, their numerous partisans, and, 
finally, of the entire public." — Senac de Meilhan's Portraits et Caracteres 
du xviii* Siecle, p. 32. 

1 M. Gaston Maugras's le Due et la Duchesse de Choiseul. 

47 



MADAME DU BARRY 

fearful of being thought less severe or less ardent against 
the enemies of her husband, made common cause with 
Madame de Gramont, while the haughty and high- 
tempered Princesse de Beauvau, " who always knew how to 
proportion her efforts to the obstacles which stood in the 
way of her desires," declared that any one who did not 
openly side with them would forfeit her regard. 1 

Madame du Barry, conscious of the weakness of her 
position, would have been ready to make almost any 
concession to avoid a struggle with such redoubtable 
antagonists ; but Choiseul, urged on by the angry women 
who surrounded him, would hear of no compromise, and 
the war began, as was the custom in those days, by a 
campaign of calumny — a storm of epigrams, pamphlets, 
and chansons. 

A song called La Bourbonnaise had at this time a 
great vogue both in Paris and the provinces. One of 
the scribes employed by Choiseul conceived the idea of 
writing a fresh set of verses, describing the career of 
Madame du Barry, and the new version, copies of which 
were distributed broadcast, soon ousted the old, and 
became so popular that, according to Grimm, there was no 
street or corner of the city where one did not hear it sung. 

1 The following anecdote, related by Chamfort, will show the real 
motive of the feminine opposition to the new favourite : 

" Madame du Barry, being at Luciennes, had a fancy to see Le Val, 
the residence of M. de Beauvau. She inquired of the latter if it would 
not displease Madame de Beauvau, and Madame de Beauvau professed 
that she would be delighted to receive her and do the honours. There 
was some talk of events which had happened in the time of Louis XV., 
and Madame du Barry complained of various things which seemed to 
indicate that she had been the object of hatred. ' Not at all,' said 
Madame de Beauvau, 'we only wanted your place. , " — Chamfort's Maximes, 
pensees, caracthes, et anecdotes ^edit. 1796), p. 179, 



MADAME DU BARRY 

" La Bourbonnaise 
Arrivant a Paris, 
A gagne des Louis. 
La Bourbonnaise 
A gagne des Louis 
Chez un marquis. 

" Pour apanage 
Elle avait la beaute ! 
Elle avait la beaute 

Pour apanage. 
Mais ce petit tresor 
Lui vaut de For." 

From a peasant she blossoms into a grande aame, who 
rides in her coach, and at length, one fine day, finds 
herself at Versailles : 

" Elle est allee 
Se faire voir en cour, 
Se faire voir en cour 

Elle est allee. 
On dit qu'elle a, ma foi, 
Plu meme au roi." 

Later, some additional verses, by no means complimentary 
to the King and his new enchantress, appeared ; 

" Quelle nouvelle ! 
Une fille de rien ; 
Une fille de rien, 

Quelle nouvelle ! 
Donne au roi de l'amour 
Est a la cour. 

" Elle est gentille, 
Elle a les yeux fripons ; 
Elle a les yeux fripons, 

Elle est gentille. 
Elle excite avec art 

Un vieux paillard." 

49 o 



MADAME DU BARRY 

The stage likewise lent its aid to the enmity of the 
Minister. Plays were written round the adventures of 
the new favourite, and performed at the booths and fairs 
in and around Paris. On October 30, Gaudon's troop of 
actors 1 gave a representation of a burlesque called La 
Bourbonnaise a la guinguette, the action of which is 
supposed to take place at the Cadran bleu, a well-known 
tavern in the Faubourg des Porcherons. The heroine 
is represented as a coarse virago, using the argot of the 
slums, indulging in scandalous liaisons, and tossing off 
bumpers of wine and brandy. A cook, a coiffeur, a 
Government clerk, and the keeper of a gambling-house, 
characters intended to represent Anne Becu, Lametz, 
Saint-Foy, and the " Roue" were allotted leading parts in 
this precious production, which was afterwards printed 
to ensure greater publicity. 

A few days later, a second Bourbonnaise, " an operetta 
with dialogues in prose," was performed by Nicolet's 
troupe. 2 In this piece, which was the work of Beaunoir, 
a playwright of some merit, the satire is more refined 
than in La Bourbonnaise a la guinguette, but it is not less 
mordant, and " the most critical period of Madame du 
Barry's life is laid bare, with exaggerations no doubt, but 
with a substratum of truth." The operetta turns upon 
the Bourbonnaise's relations with a coiffeur de dames 
named Retappe, who is, of course, Lametz. The 
Bourbonnaise is about to espouse Retappe when a 

1 Founded by an actor named Restier in 1735, under the name of 
" la grande troupe etranglre" It performed at the fairs of Saint-Laurent 
and Saint-Germain, and it is probably at the latter, which was held in 
October, that the Bourbonnaise a la guinguette was played. 

2 " This troupe is the only one which has a successful existence to- 
day (1779)." — Hurtaut and Magny's Dictionnaire de la ville de Paris et 
ses environs, iv. 705. 

50 



MADAME DU BARRY 

neighbour interferes and urges her to exploit her beauty. 
The maiden and Retappe take counsel together ; at first 
they are inclined to reject such an odious proposition, but 
eventually avarice proves stronger than virtue. The 
scene thereupon changes to a gambling-house, to which 
Retappe brings gilded youths to pay their court to the 
Bourbonnaise. She invites them to join her in a game of 
cards, with results which may be anticipated. Then a 
peddling jeweller arrives, and the gilded youths expend 
more of their money in loading their hostess with 
presents. Further sums are extracted from them, when 
the Bourbonnaise's creditors, previously invited by the 
lady, make a sudden descent and refuse to leave till their 
claims are satisfied. The play concludes with a duel 
between two of the heroine's admirers, the arrival of the 
watch, and the hurried break-up of the company. 1 

The movement once launched went merrily on. Two 
other plays, one satirising the favourite and the other the 
"Roue" a manuscript pamphlet, called U Apprentissage 
dune fille de modes, in which Madame du Barry figures 
under the name of Agnes Pompon, and a biting satire, 
V Apotheose du Roi Petaud, which was attributed, though, 
it would seem, without foundation, to Voltaire, followed 
one another in quick succession ; and, at the beginning of 
December, the Austrian Ambassador informs his Govern- 
ment that nothing is talked of in the theatres and the 
streets but the scandalous conduct of the King, and that 
the popular exasperation is becoming so great that placards 
are being affixed to the walls, " which, among expressions 
of the most terrifying description, prognosticate that France 
is still able to produce Ravaillacs and Damiens." 2 

1 Vatel's Histoire de Madame du Barry, i. 144, et seq. 

2 Letter of Mercy to Kaunitz, December 9, 1768. 

51 



MADAME DU BARRY 

M. Vatel, in his Histoire de Madame du Barry , expresses 
surprise that Choiseul should have condescended to such 
methods of warfare, since it would have been easy for 
him, with the Lieutenant of Police and his numerous 
agents under his orders, to have procured documentary 
proofs of the new favourite's humble origin and dis- 
creditable past, and also of the impudent frauds perpetrated 
on the occasion of her marriage, and to have laid them 
before the King. Had this course been adopted, he 
argues, all danger of Madame du Barry becoming 
maitresse en titre would have been averted, as, though the 
monarch's infatuation might have been strong enough 
to induce him to overlook her quasi-criminal complicity 
in the Du Barrys' forgeries, he would certainly never 
have dared to force her upon his Court. 

M. Vatel, however, was unacquainted with the corre- 
spondence between Mercy and Kaunitz, published some 
years ago, from which it appears that Choiseul had fully 
intended to take this step, but was dissuaded there- 
from by the representations of the Ambassadors of 
Austria and Spain, to both of which Powers it was a 
matter of the most vital importance that Choiseul's credit 
with his royal master should remain unimpaired. Mercy 
and Fuentes pointed out that an open remonstrance, 
which could not fail to humiliate the King, might very 
well do the Minister irreparable injury, and should, at all 
costs, be avoided. The scandal was a public one ; all 
France deplored it. It would be wiser to allow the echo 
of the rumours concerning the favourite's past to reach 
the ears of the monarch ; and a Minister so powerful as 
Choiseul could easily find means of ensuring this, without 
committing himself. 1 

1 Despatch of Mercy to Kaunitz, December 9, 1768. 
52 



MADAME DU BARRY 

Unfortunately for Choiseul and his advisers, the cam- 
paign of calumny had the very opposite effect to that 
which they had anticipated. The pamphleteers and play- 
wrights whom the Minister employed did their work 
but too well. Not content with bringing accusations 
against the favourite which had some foundation in fact, 
their zeal led them to charge her with vices and faults of 
which she was wholly guiltless, such as drunkenness, 
vulgarity, and ignorance. What chivalry remained to 
Louis XV. was aroused by these shameful attacks upon 
a defenceless woman. His reply was to redouble his 
attentions to his mistress, to load her with favours, and, 
finally, to order apartments to be prepared for her at 
Versailles. 



53 



CHAPTER V 

Installation of Madame du Barry at Versailles — Question of 
her presentation — The Due de Richelieu, First Gentleman 
of the Bedchamber, uses his influence in her favour — Diffi- 
culties in the way of the presentation — The Comtesse de 
Beam consents to act as sponsor to Madame du Barry — 
Choiseul puts forward Madame Millin as a rival to the new 
favourite — Position of Mesdames — " Lisette ta beaute" seduit " — - 
Mesdames decide to support Choiseul against Madame du 
Barry — Intrigues of Mercy-Argenteau and Madame de Dur- 
fort — Mesdames urge the King to marry the Archduchess 
Elizabeth of Austria — Disinclination of Choiseul to second 
their efforts in this direction — Diplomatic illness of Madame 
de Beam causes the postponement of the favourite's presenta- 
tion — Accident to Louis XV. — The King does not see the 
favourite for several days — General impression that the 
presentation will be abandoned, which, however, proves 
unfounded — Presentation of Madame du Barry. 

It would appear to have been in the closing weeks of 
1768 or the first of the following year that Madame 
du Barry was installed at Versailles. The apartments 
allotted to her were those of the deceased valet-de-chambre 
Lebel, situated on the rez-de-chaussie of the Cour Royale, 
and here she remained until the spring of 1770, when 
she removed to the suite which had formerly been 
occupied by the deceased Dauphiness, Marie Josephe of 
Saxony, on the second floor of the chateau, immediately 
above the King's private apartments. 1 

* The Goncourts (who also assert that the new favourite was 

54 



MADAME DU BARRY 

A little court soon gathered about her: ambitious 
young noblemen, eager to worship at the shrine of the 
rising sun ; foreigners of rank, like the Prince de Ligne, 
who came thither curious to see how the little courtesan 
he had known in the Rue de Jussien comported herself 
amid her new surroundings, and some of Jeanne's old 
literary acquaintances, like Robb6 de Beauveset 1 and 
Cailhava. 2 In the afternoons, a stream of visitors might 
be seen wending its way towards the apartments of the 
new divinity ; and Madame de Gramont, whose windows 
overlooked the Cour Royale, compelled to witness the 
triumph of her rival, was beside herself with mortification 

installed at Versailles immediately after her marriage), M. Vatel, 
and Mr. Douglas all say that the apartments to which Madame du 
Barry removed were those of Madame Adelaide, Louis XV.'s eldest 
daughter, who was given those of the Dauphiness in exchange. This, 
as M. de Nolhac points out in his interesting work, Le Ch&feau de 
Versailles sous Louis XV., is an error. 

1 Pierre Honore Robbe de Beauveset (1712-1792), a poet celebrated, 
or at least known, for his profane and licentious verses. Madame du 
Hausset says : " This same Archbishop of Paris (Christophe de Beau- 
mont) gave a pension of 1200 livres to the greatest scoundrel in Paris 
(Robbe de Beauveset), who writes abominable verses ; this pension 
being granted on condition that his poems were never printed. I was 
informed of this by M. de Marigny, to whom he recited some of his 
shocking verses one evening when he supped with him, in company 
with some persons of quality. He chinked the money in his pocket and 
said, laughing : ' This is my good archbishop's ; I keep my word 
with him ; my poem will never be printed so long as I live, but I read 
it. What would the worthy prelate say if he knew that I had shared 
my last quarter's allowance with a charming little dancer from the 
Opera?'" 

2 Jean Francois Cailhava d'Estandoux (1731-1813), author of a 
number of comedies, including Le Manage impromptu, UEgo'isme, and 
Le Journaliste Anglais, in the last of which he revenged himself upon 
La Harpe, who had severely criticised his productions in the Meratre x 
by making him appear in a most odious r&le, 



MADAME DU BARRY 

and jealousy, and urged her brother to prosecute the 
campaign of slander with renewed vigour. 

As soon as Madame du Barry was installed at Versailles, 
the question of her presentation to the King was raised. 
The Goncourts assert that Jean du Barry was the prime 
mover in this affair, but, in our opinion, there can be 
little doubt that the responsibility rests with the Due 
de Richelieu, who, on January I, 1769, had entered upon 
his term of office as First Gentleman of the Bedchamber, in 
which capacity he had charge of the presentations for the 
ensuing year. 

This hero of gallantry was now in his seventy-third 
year, but age had not diminished his predilection for the 
fair sex nor his love of intrigue. Bitterly jealous of 
Choiseul's ascendency over the King, and incensed by the 
Minister's refusal to allow him scope for the exercise of 
the meddlesome activity which he mistook for genius, he 
had viewed with unalloyed satisfaction the advent of a 
rival influence. At first, having no great confidence in 
the permanency of the monarch's latest passion, he had 
hesitated to commit himself too deeply ; but once assured 
that the affair was something more than a caprice, he 
resolved to lend his support to Madame du Barry, hoping 
thereby to ensure the undoing of his enemy and the 
realisation of certain political ambitions of his own, to 
which his reputation for levity had hitherto opposed an 
insurmountable barrier. 

Richelieu's office of First Gentleman of the Bedchamber 
afforded him ample opportunity for private conversation 
with his royal master, and it is probable that he experi- 
enced but little difficulty in inducing the King to lend a 
willing ear to his suggestion. 

There is, indeed, some reason to suppose that Louis 

5« 



MADAME DU BARRY 

already entertained the idea of having his mistress pre- 
sented, and that the marriage on which he had insisted 
had had no other object than to pave the way for this 
ceremony. The nature of his senile passion rendered it 
imperative that its object should be always near him ; but 
until the lady had been presented it was impossible for 
her to ride in the royal carriages, to be admitted to his 
Majesty's petits soupers, to pay her court to the Dauphin 
or the King's daughters (Mesdanies), to be present at the 
ceremonies or festivities of the Court, to enjoy, in a word, 
any of those privileges "without which the mistress was 
nothing but a mistress, with which the mistress was the 
favourite." 1 For the King to keep her at Versailles or in 
the other royal chateaux without acknowledging her was 
to tacitly admit that he was in the wrong, to recognise 
limits to his power, and Louis XV. had always believed, 
as Choiseul observes, that " the iclat he threw into his 
amours was a proof of his authority." 

The presentation was then decided on, but before it 
could take place two obstacles had to be surmounted. 
The first of these, by a singular coincidence, the King 
had himself created. The right of presentation solicited 
by so many ladies was accorded to comparatively few. 
By a decree of April 1760, Louis XV. had very strictly 
defined the conditions upon which this favour was to be 
accorded. No lady was henceforth to be eligible who 
could not satisfy the Court genealogist that both she and 
her husband were of noble birth. 

To the claim of Madame du Barry's titular husband 

no objection was likely to be raised ; indeed, it had 

already been conceded when his younger brother, Elie 

du Barry, had been admitted as a pupil to the Ecole 

1 E. and J. de Goncourt's La Du Barry, p. 45. 

57 



MADAME DU BARRY 

Militaire, and his nephew Adolphe, the " Roues " son, 
appointed page to the King, for both of which positions 
proofs of noble birth were rigorously insisted on. But 
the favourite herself was in a very different case. How 
was she to get rid of the B6cus and find a genealogy for 
the Vauberniers ? 

Although Louis XV. firmly believed that his kingly 
dignity placed him above all laws, moral and religious, 
he shared the general prejudice of his age, and enter- 
tained the deepest veneration for the rules of etiquette ; 
and the difficulty with which he now found himself 
confronted appears to have occasioned him the keenest 
embarrassment. According to Belleval, he approached 
the Princesse de Tingry, with the idea of purchasing for 
Madame du Barry the principality of Lus in Bigorre, 1 
and allowing her to masquerade as a foreign princess, in 
which event, of course, no proofs of nobility would be 
required. If such were the case, the negotiations fell 
through, for when the lady was presented it was certainly 
not as a foreign princess. 2 How the difficulty was finally 
overcome does not appear to be known. Some writers 
are of opinion that the proofs were dispensed with 
altogether, while there is a more than remote possibility 
that Jean du Barry was again called upon to exercise his 
inventive talent. 

The second obstacle was less serious, but not less 
embarrassing. It was necessary to find a lady who had 

1 Lus in Bigorre was a little town in Gascony, situated on the River 
Gave, in the valley of Bareges, three leagues from the Spanish frontier. 
It had been united to the royal domain in the time of Philippe le Bel, 
but still enjoyed a nominal independence. It is now known as Luz- 
Saint-Sauveur. 

s Souvenirs (Tun Chevau tiger,, p. 117. 

58 



MADAME DU BARRY 

already been presented to act as marraine to the new 
postulant. This was no easy task. The resentment of 
the feminine portion of the Court against the favourite 
was far from being confined to the coterie dominated by 
Madame de Gramont ; it was well-nigh universal. It 
was felt that for a woman of exalted position to under- 
take so unenviable a duty would mean degradation ; 
while for one of lower rank to do so would be to court 
social ostracism. Every lady who was applied to 
indignantly refused, or took refuge in specious excuses. 1 
The Baronne de Montmorency, who it was thought 
might be willing to play the part " in return for money 
and many favours," set so exorbitant a price upon her 
services that the King found it impossible to comply with 
her demands, and the friends of Madame du Barry were 
in despair. Finally, however, a marraine was found in 
the person of the Comtesse de Beam, a lady of very 
ancient but impoverished family, 2 who since the death of 
her husband had resided entirely upon her estates, and 
cared little for the opinion of a Court which she had 
ceased to adorn. The countess had come to Paris to 
prosecute a lawsuit, in which she herself had been engaged 
for some years and her family for more than two 
centuries. This lawsuit had at length been decided in 
her favour, but in the interim she had incurred large 
debts, which she was totally unable to settle. When, 

1 One lady did consent, but, finding that the King's daughters turned 
their backs upon her next time she went to Court, she took to her bed 
and gave out that she was stricken with a mortal disease. 

2 Angelique Gabrielle Joumard des Achards, married in 1738 to 
Francois Alexandre Galard, Vicomte de B£arn, seigneur d'Argentines. 
The Galards of Beam claimed descent from the Merovingiens, through 
Eude of Aquitaine. They had enjoyed at one time a quasi-princely 
rank. 

*9 



MADAME DU BARRY 

therefore, one fine day, Richelieu, who was a distant con- 
nection of her own, waited upon her, and suggested a 
way out of the difficulty, she readily agreed to do what 
was required of her, and the duke at once fixed the 
presentation of Madame du Barry for January 25. 

Meanwhile the war of chansons, pamphlets, and plays 
continued with unabated vigour, but whatever effect it 
may have produced upon the Court and the city it had 
little or none upon the amorous old monarch, unless to 
excite his resentment at such unwarrantable interference 
in his private affairs. Chagrined at his want of success, 
Choiseul had recourse to other measures ; he cast about 
for a rival beauty who might be capable of weaning the 
King from Madame du Barry, and fixed upon the wife of 
a Paris doctor, a Madame Millin, " young and charming 
and devoted to his interests." 

" I have seen her," writes Belleval, " but, though very 
pretty, she is not to be compared with the favourite. 
No one seems to think that M. de Choiseul will succeed 
in this affair, for the King is too infatuated." 1 

Such, indeed, proved to be the case ; his Majesty would 
have nothing to say to Madame Millin, and, in despair, 
the Minister decided to seek the assistance of Mesdames. 

The four unmarried daughters of Louis XV., Mesdames 
Adelaide, Victoire, Sophie, and Louise, lived a very retired 
and uneventful life, and had little influence or credit ; but 

1 Souvenirs cfun Chevau-leger, p. 118. 

Writing under date January 15, Hardy confirms Belleval's account of 
this incident, and describes Madame Mellin in much the same terms : 
" Young and pretty, but less beautiful than the countess (du Barry)." 
Some time afterwards, Choiseul put forward another lady, his cousin, 
the Vicomte de Choiseul's wife, a beautiful Creole ; but the King was 
insensible to her charms. 

60 



MADAME DU BARRY 

the King, in his selfish way, was much attached to them, 
and, in accordance with an old habit, which dated from 
the time when the princesses were young and agreeable 
companions, paid them daily visits, always at the same 
hour. The strict seclusion into which they had with- 
drawn since the death of the Queen, and the rigorous 
discretion they imposed upon their ladies and little circle 
of intimates, had hitherto prevented them from learning 
of their royal father's latest conquest, and they were 
ignorant even of the existence of such a person as 
Madame du Barry. Choiseul, however, having decided 
that the time had come to enlighten them, adroitly con- 
trived that a copy of the following verses, which satirised 
the favourite without overstepping the bounds of pro- 
priety, should be brought under the notice of the 
princesses : 

" Lisette ta beaute seduit 

Et charme tout le monde. 
En vain la Duchesse en rougit, 

Et la princesse en gronde. 
Chacun sait qui Venus naquit 

De l'ecume de l'onde. 

" En vit-elle moins tous les Dieux 
Lui rendre un juste hommage, 

Et Paris, ce berger fameux, 
Lui donner l'avantage, 

Meme sur la reine des Cieux 
Et Mi nerve le Sage. 

" Dans le Serrail (sic) du Grand Seigneur 

Quelle est la Favorite ? 
C'est la plus belle au gre du cceur 

Du Maitre qui l'habite. 
C'est le seul titre en sa faveur 

Et c'est le vrai merite." 1 

These pretty verses have been ascribed to several persons : to the 

61 



MADAME DU BARRY 

After perusing these verses, Mesdames very naturally 
asked for an explanation, and were astonished to find 
that not only was the King engaged in a fresh liaison, but 
that it was viewed with complacence by not a few of their 
devout friends, who seemed to regard Madame du Barry 
as destined to repair the evil which Madame de Pompa- 
dour and Choiseul had brought upon the Church by their 
anti-Jesuit policy. The preceptor of the Dauphin and 
his brothers, the Duke de La Vauguyon, and Madame de 
Marsan, gouvernante of the princesses, did not hesitate to 
assert their conviction that Providence had chosen this 
instrument, all unworthy though it was, to chasten the 
haughty Minister and bring about his fall. 1 

Due de Nivernais, the Chevalier de Boufflers, and the Abbe de 
Lattaignan, canon of Rheims. At the time when they were written 
the duke was generally believed to be the author ; but M. Vatel is 
inclined to give the credit to the abbe. However that may be, the 
Choiseul party appear to have been of opinion that the irony was a little 
difficult to detect, and, accordingly, employed one of their scribes to 
parody the first verse : 

" De deux Venus on parle dans le monde, 

De toutes deux gouverner fut le lot. 
L'une naquit de l'ecume de l'onde, 

L'autre naquit de l'ecume du pot.'* 
The " scum of the pot " is, of course, an allusion to the occupation of 
the favourite's mother, who had at one time been a cook. 

1 Hardy, in his Journal, relates that on the evening of February I, 
1769, a priest of his acquaintance was dining with a friend. At dessert, 
another priest who was present invited the company to drink to " the 
presentation." Hardy's friend inquired his meaning, and was told : 
" It is that which took place yesterday, or will take place to-day, the 
presentation of the new Esther, who is to supplant Haman and deliver 
the Jewish people from oppression." The new Esther was Madame du 
Barry, Haman was Choiseul, and the Jewish people, the clerical party. — 
Journal des tenements tels quails parvlennent a ma connaissance. (Biblio- 
theque Nationale.) 

62 



MADAME DU BARRY 

Now, Mesdames detested Choiseul. The eldest, Madame 
Adela'fde, a haughty and vindictive woman, saw in him 
only the ally of Austria and the creature of Madame de 
Pompadour ; the youngest, Madame Louise, the most 
intelligent of the family, could not pardon his expulsion 
of the Jesuits and his sympathy with the philosophers. 
However, they were too sincere in their desire for their 
royal father's spiritual welfare — they had since the Queen's 
death cherished the illusion that the King was " sincerely 
converted and resolved to live like a good Christian " — 
to be deceived by the specious arguments of La Vauguyon 
and Madame de Marsan ; and no sooner had they made 
themselves acquainted with the details of the affair, than 
they determined to sacrifice their personal feelings and 
make common cause with the Minister. 

But, unfortunately for Choiseul, the princesses could 
not bring themselves to adopt the course which would, in 
all likelihood, have at least prevented the presentation of 
Madame du Barry, even if it had had no further results — 
that of openly remonstrating with the King. They pre- 
ferred to attack the new favourite by indirect methods, 
namely, by using their influence to promote their father's 
marriage with the Archduchess Elizabeth. In this, as the 
following letter from Mercy to Kaunitz clearly indicates, 
they were unconsciously permitting themselves to be 
made the agents of the Austrian Ambassador, who, eager 
to turn the affair to the advantage of his Court, had 
contrived to gain over Madame Victor's dame d'atours 
(Mistress of the Robes) and confidante, the Comtesse de 
Durfort, and, through her, was pulling the strings with 
considerable adroitness : 



63 



MADAME DU BARRY 

Mercy to Kaunitz. 

"Paris, December 29, 1768. 

" Monseigneur, — Some very interesting circumstances 
have lately arisen relative to the matter of which I had 
the honour to render an account to your Highness in my 
letter of November 1. I acquainted you on that occasion 
with the first details of the intrigue of Madame du 
Barry, and T added that I was endeavouring to turn this 
conjuncture to account — to make it understood how 
important it was to the tranquillity of the Ministers and 
the glory of the King that this prince should extricate 
himself by means of a second marriage from the 
irregularities to which he does not cease to abandon 
himself. 

"As soon as this could be done without exciting 
suspicion, I insinuated my views into every quarter where 
I judged them capable of producing some efFect, and I 
found occasion to speak of them, amongst others, to 
Madame de Durfort, dame d'atours to Madame de France 
(Madame Victor). This lady spoke to me with con- 
siderable frankness about Madame du Barry; she confided 
to me that, at the outset, Mesdames had not imagined 
that this adventure was likely to have serious con- 
sequences, but that, alarmed by the public clamour and 
by the results which are only too easy to foresee, they 
were in despair about it, and were seeking means to put 
an end to the intrigue. 

"A week after the first overtures of Madame de 
Durfort, she informed me that Mesdames, still full of 
this project, were at length convinced that there was no 
other way to establish tranquillity at Court and in the 
Royal Family, and that to effect it they were prepared to 

64 



MADAME DU BARRY 

use every means of persuasion and to endeavour that the 
choice of the King should fall upon the Archduchess 
Elizabeth. Madame de Durfort added that in supporting 
this project she had at the same time suggested the 
language which Mesdames should employ towards the 
monarch, in order to prevail upon him to comply with 
their wishes. 

" In response, I said everything that the circumstances 
required ; I enlarged upon the personal advantages which 
Mesdames would derive from securing in the archduchess 
a sure friend, who, constantly associated with them, would 
be in a position to assure the happiness of the Royal 
Family by the natural influence which she would have 
over the mind of the King and over that of the Dauphin 
and future Dauphiness. 1 I did not forget to speak of 
matters likely to interest Madame de Durfort, and I left 
her persuaded to my view of the affair and very pleased 
with the conversation which I had had with her. . . ." 2 

Madame de Durfort faithfully carried out her em- 
ployer's instructions, and, a few days later, Mesdames ', 
summoning up their courage, astonished the King by a 
request that he should give them a queen, and that the 
queen should be the Archduchess Elizabeth of Austria. 
The monarch seemed at first much embarrassed, affected 
to believe that his daughters spoke in jest, and enlarged 
upon the inconveniences inseparable from second mar- 
riages; but ended by laughing good-humouredly and 
agreeing to give the matter his consideration. Mesdames 

1 Marie Antoinette, the Archduchess Elizabeth's younger sister. 

3 Correspondance secrete du Comte de Mercy- Argenteau avec F Empereur 
Joseph II. et le Prince von Kaunitz, par le Chevalier d 'Arneth et 
M. Jules Flammerrnont (Paris, 1896), ii. 54.7, 

6<Z n 



MADAME DU BARRY 

returned to the charge each time their father came to 
visit them, with the result that one day they succeeded 
in extracting from him a definite promise to demand the 
archduchess in marriage, " provided that her person did 
not displease him " ; whereupon the princesses, delighted 
at the success of their scheme, immediately proposed that 
an artist should be sent to Vienna to paint the arch- 
duchess. The King consented, and it was decided to 
offer the commission to Drouais. 

Things seemed to promise well, though Drouais de- 
clined the proffered commission, or rather placed a pro- 
hibitive price on his services, 1 no doubt because, unknown 
to Mesdames, he was at that time engaged on two por- 
traits of the favourite, to which we shall have occasion 
to refer later. 2 And we are inclined to think that it is 
highly probable that Louis would have kept the promise 
he had made his daughters, had the efforts of the latter 
but been seconded by Choiseul. This, however, the 
Minister seemed unwilling to do, though Mercy lost no 
opportunity of " reminding him of all the reasons which 
ought to render such a project (the King's marriage) 
eminently agreeable and desirable to him." 

The truth is that the idea of Louis XV. 's union with 
a young princess was very far from commending itself to 
the Minister or his sister, Madame de Gramont. To rid 
themselves of Madame du Barry by such means seemed 
to them as unwise as for a person to submit to a dan- 
gerous operation for a disease which might conceivably 
never reach an acute stage. " Persons in power," wrote 
Mercy to Kaunitz, "imagine that a queen, judicious and 
amiable, who would succeed in gaining the affection of 
her husband, might open his eyes to the irregularities and 

1 80,000 livres. 2 See p. 100, infra. 

66 



MADAME DU BARRY 

the enormous abuses which exist in all departments here, 
and cause much embarrassment to those who direct them. 
They are consequently of opinion that it behoves them to 
divert the mind of the King from ideas of marriage ; and 
I have very strong proofs that Madame de Gramont, 
more interested than any one in the maintenance of the 
present abuses, has succeeded in persuading M. de Choiseul 
to renounce his own predilections in this affair." 1 

Thus, blinded by ambition and cupidity, the Choiseuls 
prepared the way for their own fall, by rejecting that 
which would, in all probability, have proved their sal- 
vation. 

Nevertheless, for several weeks the question of the 
King's re-marriage continued to be a frequent subject of 
conversation between Louis XV. and his daughters, and 
Mesdames occupied themselves in seeking a painter to 
take the place of Drouais, and ended by recommending 
Ducrest. The princesses entertained no doubt whatever 
as to their father's sincerity ; but such was not the opinion 
of the watchful Mercy, who sorrowfully admits to 
Kaunitz that the delay in sending a painter to Vienna 
"renders the intentions of the King so doubtful that he 
cannot bring himself to hope for a favourable issue." 
He adds that Choiseul is so much incensed against 
Madame du Barry that he and the Spanish Ambassador 
have experienced the greatest difficulty in prevailing upon 
him to renounce " the rash and violent measures on which 
he appeared determined " ; but that, on the other hand, 
the Minister still clings to the belief that the favourite 
will not, after all, be presented, 2 and, in consequence, 

1 Despatch of November I, 1768. 

2 Madame du Deffand was of the same opinion. On January 14 
she wrote to Horace Walpole : " I suppose you know all about the 

6 7 



MADAME DU BARRY 

cannot be persuaded to urge upon the King the advis- 
ability of marrying the Austrian archduchess. From the 
same letter we learn that his Most Christian Majesty is 
passing the greater part of his time with his new enchan- 
tress, that the public is murmuring and " permitting itself 
the utmost freedom of speech," that the revenue for the 
past year shows a deficit of 38,000 million livres, that the 
Comptroller-General is at his wits' end, and that France 
seems bankrupt in both money and morals. 1 

Choiseul's belief that the presentation of Madame du 
Barry would, after all, be abandoned seemed not unlikely 
to be justified, for January 25 passed without the dreaded 
event taking place. Madame de Beam's courage, it 
appeared, had failed her at the last moment ; the icy 
reception she had encountered on the occasion of a recent 
visit to Court had given her a sprained ankle, and she 
sent word that it was impossible for her to leave her room. 

The enemies of the favourite could hardly restrain 
their elation, and, indeed, Fate seemed to be playing into 
their hands, for ere Madame de Beam had had time to 
regain her courage and the use of her ankle, another 
accident — a genuine one this time — intervened to post- 
pone the evil day a second time. 

On February 4, Louis XV., while hunting in the 
Forest of Saint-Germain, was thrown from his horse, 
falling heavily on his right shoulder. The pain was so 
severe that he believed that his arm was broken, and, 

divinity in question (Madame du Barry) ; a nymph brought out from 
the most famous retreats of Cythera and Paphos. No, no ; I cannot 
believe in all that folks foresee ; the greatest obstacles may be overcome, 
and one may yet be checked by shame, by mere decency,'* 
1 Despatch of January 24, 1769. 

68 



MADAME DU BARRY 

according to one account, " behaved with a weakness 
which would have been ridiculous in a little girl ten years 
old." A litter was hastily improvised on which the 
monarch was conveyed to his carriage, and orders were 
given to return to Versailles, where, the news having 
preceded his arrival, and a report having spread that the 
accident was of an alarming character, the Court was in a 
ferment of excitement, every one speculating as to how 
his or her position would be affected in the event of the 
King succumbing to his supposed injuries. 

On reaching the chateau, it was found that Louis's 
arm had swollen to such an extent as to render it 
necessary to cut away the sleeve of his coat ; but an 
examination revealed that beyond a slight dislocation of 
the shoulder no harm had been done, and the excitement 
of the selfish courtiers speedily subsided. However, 
having regard to the King's age, the accident was a rather 
severe one, and obliged him to keep his apartments for 
some time, as a result of which confinement he developed 
so alarming an attack of ennui that Senac, his first 
physician, confided to Mercy his fear that if his Majesty 
were to be much longer deprived of violent exercise, his 
mind would become affected, "a danger with which he had 
long been threatened." 1 

Illness invariably had the effect of temporarily detach- 
ing Louis from his mistresses, and for several days Madame 
du Barry did not see the King. On the other hand, 
Mesdames were constant in their attendance upon their 
royal father, while the Dauphin and his brothers and 
sisters, by his Majesty's request, also paid several visits to 
the sick-room. The impression was general that this 
return to family life could hardly fail to make for virtue, 

1 Mercy to Kaunitz, March 14, 1769. 
69 



MADAME DU BARRY 

or, at least, for decency ; and when it was announced that 
the King had given orders for the apartments of Madame 
Adelaide, which adjoined his own, to be renovated, few 
doubted that the object was to prepare for a future queen, 
the Archduchess Elizabeth. 

The monarch recovered and resumed his visits to his 
new mistress, but the weeks went by and nothing further 
was heard of the dreaded presentation. Gradually the 
opponents of the lady permitted their apprehensions to 
be lulled to rest. The interest of the Court was trans- 
ferred to other matters : the marriage of the Due de 
Chartres and Mademoiselle de Penthievre, the completion 
of the grande salle of the Opera at Versailles, the magnifi- 
cent fe'tes which were to celebrate the approaching union 
of the Dauphin and Marie Antoinette ; people ceased to 
talk of " the Bourbonnaise." 

The astonishment and indignation, therefore, may be 
imagined when towards the middle of April the announce- 
ment was made that on the 22 nd of the month his 
Majesty would hold a presentation, and that among the 
ladies who were to participate in the honour would be 
the Comtesse du Barry. 

The long-deferred ceremony duly took place, and 
Madame du Barry appears to have acquitted herself well, 
and to have shown commendable sang-froid in what the 
following account, given by Madame de Genlis, an eye- 
witness, will show must have been exceedingly trying 
circumstances. 

" I went to the presentation of my aunt, 1 and was highly 

1 The Marquise de Montesson. The other ladies presented with 
Madame du Barry were the Marquise de Gouffier, the Comtesse de 
Boisgelin, and the Comtesse de Lusignan. 

70 



MADAME DU BARRY 

diverted, for it was the very same day on which Madame 
du Barry was presented. It was recognised on all sides 
that she was splendidly and tastefully attired. By day- 
light, her face was passee, and her complexion spoiled by 
freckles. Her bearing was revoltingly impudent, and 
her features far from handsome, but she had fair hair of 
a charming colour, pretty teeth, and a pleasing expression. 
She looked extremely well at night. We reached the 
card-tables in the evening a few minutes before her. 
At her entrance, all the ladies who were near the door 
rushed tumultuously forward in the opposite direction, in 
order to avoid being seated near her, so that between her 
and the last lady in the room there was an interval of four of 
five empty places. She regarded this marked and singular 
movement with the utmost coolness ; nothing affected 
her imperturbable effrontery. When the King appeared 
at the conclusion of play, she looked at him and smiled. 
The King at once cast his eyes round the room in search 
of her; he appeared in an ill-humour, and almost instantly 
retired. The indignation at Versailles was unbounded ; - 1 
for never had anything so scandalous been seen, not 
even the triumphs of Madame de Pompadour. It was 
certainly very strange to see at Court Madame la Marquise 
de Pompadour, while her husband, M. Lenormant d'Etioles, 
was only a farmer-general, but it was still more odious to 
see a fille publique presented with pomp to the whole of 
the Royal Family. This and many other instances of 
unparalleled indecency cruelly degraded royalty, and, con- 
sequently, contributed to bring about the Revolution." 2 

1 Hardy, who may be considered the mouthpiece of Paris, says : 
"This event aroused great murmuring both in Paris and Versailles. 
Some interested persons rejoiced over it, but the greater number were in 
consternation." 

Memoires de Madame de Genlis (edit. 1825), p. 89. A news-sheet 

71 



MADAME DU BARRY 

The day following her presentation, which was a 
Sunday, Madame du Barry assisted at the King's Mass, 
and occupied in the chapel the place which had formerly 
been reserved for Madame de Pompadour. The attend- 
ance of noblemen and ladies of the Court, it was remarked, 
was unusually small, but, as a set-off against this, there 
were a number of high ecclesiastics in his Majesty's suite, 
at the head of whom was the Archbishop of Rheims. 
At the conclusion of the ceremony, Madame du Barry 
presented herself at the dinner of Mesdames and at that 
of the Dauphin, with the performance of which duties 
her installation as maitresse en titre may be said to have 
been accomplished. 

of the time, which, however, was not improbably inspired by the 
" Roue" or some other ally of the favourite, is far more indulgent in its 
criticism : " Madame du Barry has been very well received by Mesdames, 
and even with marked graciousness. All the spectators admired the 
dignity of her bearing and the ease of her attitudes. The role of a 
lady of the Court is not an easy one to play at first, but Madame du 
Barry played it as if she had been long accustomed to it." 



7* 



CHAPTER VI 

Hostility of the Court to the new favourite — Mesdames de 
Gramont, de Choiseul, and de Beauvau begged to be excused 
from attendance at the King's petits soupers — Conduct of the 
Court ladies towards Madame du Barry during a visit to 
Marly — Determination of Louis XV. to compel the accep- 
tance of his choice — Supper-party at Bellevue — " The cat 
and dog together" — Purchase of the chaperonnage of the 
Marechale de Mirepoix — Indignation of the partisans of 
Choiseul at the defection of the marechale — The Princesse 
de Montmorency, the Comtesse de Valentinois and the 
Marquise de l'Hopital join the favourite's party — The 
Chevalier de la Morliere dedicates his Le Fatalisme to 
Madame du Barry — Chequered career of this personage — 
Other dedications to the favourite. 

Madame du Barry had then realised her ambition : the 
post of maitresse en titre, this " glorious dishonour " so 
ardently desired by so many haughty and highborn dames 
was hers ; but her triumph was not yet absolute. It 
remained for her to overcome the hostility of a Court 
which had taxed the resources of her brilliant predecessor 
to the utmost before it had allowed itself to be coerced 
or cajoled into complacence; and Madame de Pompadour, 
though, at the outset of her career, she was even more 
friendless than Madame du Barry, had had to encounter 
no such powerful Minister as Choiseul, no such bitter 
antagonists of her own sex as the Duchesses de Gramont 
and de Choiseul and the Princesse de Beauvau. 

73 



MADAME DU BARRY 

The three ladies in question lost not a moment in 
proclaiming, or rather reasserting, their inflexible hostility 
to the new regime. Immediately after the presentation, 
they intimated to the King that, owing to the changes 
that had recently taken place at Court, they feared that 
their company was less agreeable to him than formerly, 
for which reason they begged to be excused from attend- 
ance at the suppers of the Petits Cabinets. Thus was 
dispersed that intimate society which Madame de Pom- 
padour had so skilfully gathered round her, and in which 
Louis XV. had lived happily for so many years. 

Such an example was not likely to be lost upon the 
feminine portion of the Court, and during a visit to 
Marly which followed close upon the presentation, the 
ladies showed their disapproval of his Majesty's choice in 
a manner so unmistakable that a general feeling of un- 
easiness and constraint prevailed, the card-tables — the 
visits to Marly were noted for the high play which took 
place 1 — were well-nigh deserted, and every one was relieved 
when the time came to return to Versailles. 

Shunned and slighted on all sides, Madame du Barry 
was forced to take refuge in the society of Madame de 
Beam ; but opposition seemed only to render the passion 
of Louis XV. the more stubborn. " He regards resistance 
to the object of his caprice," wrote Choiseul, " as a want 
of respect to his royal person ; he recognises in this con- 
nection neither decency, nor rank, nor reputation ; he 
believes that every one ought to bow before his mistress, 

1 And had been so for nearly a century. In 1686, the Due du 
Maine wrote to Madame de Maintenon : " As it is impossible to be 
at Marly without playing, or to find any one willing to play for small 
stakes, I lost yesterday fifty pistoles to M. de Richelieu and as much to 
the Comte de Grammont." 

74 



MADAME DU BARRY 

because he honours her with his intimacy ;" he is bold in 
setting at defiance all the rules of decorum, though in 
nothing else. Then he imagines that he has shown his 
power, and proved to his Court, to his people, to Europe, 
that he is in very truth a monarch to inspire respect." 
This is, perhaps, the only occasion on which, bearing up 
against all difficulties, Louis showed a degree of firmness 
and perseverance which failed him in matters of the first 
importance. 

A few days after the return of the Court to Versailles, 
Louis XV., " as some consolation to Madame du Barry, 
who had made bitter complaints to the King about the 
contempt that the ladies of the Court manifested towards 
her," 1 gave a supper at Bellevue, the beautiful chateau 
which Madame de Pompadour had built on the banks of 
the Seine, between Sevres and Meudon, in 1750, and sold 
to the monarch seven years later. The presence of eight 
of the haughtiest dames to be found at Versailles was 
requested, who, of course, had no option but to obey, 
though, as may be imagined, they did so with the worst 
possible grace; while invitations were also sent to a number 
of noblemen, amongst whom, to the general astonishment, 
Choiseul was included. 

"One would imagine," writes Belleval,"that his Majesty 
derived amusement from seeing the cat and dog together;" 2 
but though this view of the matter is quite in keeping 
with the singular character of Louis XV., we are inclined 
to think that the invitation was inspired by a very diffe- 
rent motive, namely, that the King desired to show the 
Minister that he was firmly resolved to support his new 
mistress, and to afford him an opportunity of becoming 
reconciled to her. A dinner an grand convert would not 

1 Hardy's Journal. 2 Souvenirs d'un Chevau-leger, p. 1 20, 

75 



MADAME DU BARRY 

have suited his purpose so well, while Choiseul would 
have declined an invitation to Madame du Barry's apart- 
ments. Bellevue, however, was neutral ground, on which 
both parties might meet without embarrassment. 

If such was the King's intention his scheme came to 
nothing. Choiseul accepted the invitation — he could not 
well refuse — took his place at table with Louis and the 
favourite, and treated the latter with punctilious courtesy. 
But, at the same time, he contrived to convey the im- 
pression that he was doing violence to his feelings by 
joining the party, and that nothing but the respect he 
owed his sovereign would have induced him thus to 
compromise his dignity. 

In pursuance of his resolution to compel the Court to 
accept his mistress, Louis now bestirred himself, with an 
activity very unusual in one of his indolent temperament, 
to rally people to the standard of Madame du Barry and 
give her something more than a nominal footing at Ver- 
sailles. This, as may be supposed, was no pleasant task. 
The men were complacent enough. The King's personal 
friends, Richelieu, Soubise, Chauvelin, Villeroi, and others, 
had no scruples about paying homage to the new divinity ; 
it was all in the day's work, so to speak. But, in an 
affair of this nature, the masculine attitude was of very 
secondary importance indeed ; it was the women who 
ruled the Court, and, in the absence of a queen or a 
dauphiness, the women followed the lead of Madame de 
Gramont and her coterie and remained obdurate. 

To break through the quarantine to which his mistress 
was subjected the King perceived that the first step must 
be to secure for her the countenance and support of some 
great lady — Madame de Beam had " too much the air of 
an aunt on hire" to command any following at Court — and, 

76 ' 



MADAME DU BARRY 

accordingly, turned his eyes towards the old Marechale de 
Mirepoix, whose necessities, he thought, might incline 
her to undertake the role, if it carried with it a sufficiently 
tempting emolument. In this he was not mistaken. The 
Marechale de Mirepoix, who was the sister of the Prince 
de Beauvau, and had been the bosom friend of Madame 
de Pompadour, belonged to the Choiseul party, though 
her reluctance to compromise herself with the King had 
prevented her from taking an active part in the campaign 
against Madame du Barry. She enjoyed a very con- 
siderable income, but, owing to her extravagance and her 
passion for play, was continually in pecuniary difficulties, 
and estimated that her expenditure exceeded her receipts 
by nearly 20,000 livres, " which occasioned constant dis- 
order in her affairs, and subjected her daily to writs, 
executions, and all sorts of humiliations." For some 
years past, Louis, who was very fond of the old lady — she 
was one of the few persons who possessed the secret of 
relieving his ennui — had been in the habit of making her 
an annual gratification of 12,000 livres, to enable her to 
pacify the most importunate of her creditors ; and the 
promise that this sum should be materially increased 
sufficed to secure her chaperonnage for Madame du 
Barry. 

All the partisans of Choiseul were highly indignant at 
the defection of Madame de Mirepoix, and were loud in 
their denunciation of her conduct, declaring that it 
seemed as if she were an appanage of the post of 
favourite, to be passed on from one mistress to another 
like a piece of furniture. But, though Madame du 
Deffand wrote that the marechale appeared " very sad 
and troubled, and, for the first time in her life, unable to 
disguise her embarrassment," the latter stood to her 

77 



MADAME DU BARRY 

guns, and Madame du Barry, either from inclination or 
gratitude, soon became so attached to "la petite mares sale" 
as she called her new ally, that she could not endure to 
be separated from her. 

The reasons which had prompted li la petite mares sale" to 
cast in her lot with the despised favourite were too 
generally understood for her to find many followers. 
However, the hope of procuring some advantage for 
themselves or their relatives brought, after a while, 
several welcome recruits to the Du Barry party, prominent 
amongst whom were the Princesse de Montmorency and 
the Comtesse de Valentinois ; while the Marquise de 
l'Hopital was persuaded by Soubise, whose mistress she 
was, to throw what little influence she possessed into the 
same scale. Thus Madame du Barry found herself the 
centre of a group of ladies, which, whatever claim it may 
have had to consideration, could at least boast great 
names. 

One of the attributes of a maitresse en titre was to 
receive the homage of men of letters, and, in return, to 
bestow upon them her patronage and protection. This 
homage frequently took the form of flattering, not to 
say fulsome, dedications prefaced to their works. Thus 
La Fontaine had dedicated the second collection of his 
fables to Madame de Montespan, 1 Crebillon fere his 
Catilina to Madame de Pompadour, and Voltaire his 
Tancrede to the same lady. Madame du Barry had not 
long to wait for Literature to begin burning incense at 
her shrine. A few weeks after her presentation, a certain 

1 Two years later, La Fontaine celebrated the charms of Madame de 
Montespan's youthful rival, Mademoiselle de Fontanges, whom he 
apostrophised as " cbarmant objet, digne present des deux?' 

78 



MADAME DU BARRY 

Chevalier de la Morliere sent her a copy of a work 
entitled, Le Fatalisme, ou collection tT anecdotes pour 
prouver V influence du sort sur Fhistoire du cceur humaine, 
preceded by a most complimentary dedication, wherein he 
assured her that " Nature had lavished upon her her 
rarest gifts," that " kindness, benevolence, and sweetness 
of disposition " were hers, and that, " inspired by these 
estimable qualities," it would be her destiny to honour 
the arts and sciences and " all that would appear to her 
worthy of marked distinction." 

Unfortunately for Madame du Barry, the author of 
he Fatalisme was very far from being a Voltaire, a La 
Fontaine, or even a Crebillon. Bachaumont describes 
him as " an author better known by his knavery, impu- 
dence, and baseness than by his works," and indeed he 
appears to have been a most undesirable proUgL A man 
of some talent, he had commenced his literary career by 
the production of several romances, one of which, called 
Angola, which was published anonymously, had so great 
a vogue that it was attributed to Crebillon fils} The 
profits of these works, however, failed to accord with the 
writer's expectations, and he therefore sought to augment 
them by becoming a " dramatic critic " and levying black- 
mail upon the luckless playwrights of his time. The 
claque of which he was the head was so numerous and noisy 
that it was able to secure the success or failure of all but 
the productions of dramatists of established reputation, 
and managers trembled at the chevalier's nod. 

1 He was also the author of a work entitled, La Lauriers ecclesiastiques, 
ou campagnes de C Abbe de T. . . ., which bears the distinction of being 
one of the most obscene in the French language. It was suppressed, 
and the few copies which escaped the vigilance of the police now 
command a very high price, and are " tres recherches par les libertins" 

79 



MADAME DU BARRY 

Emboldened by his success, he imagined that it would be 
an easy matter to secure the triumph of any work of his own. 
But in this he was mistaken, as, though the poor actors did 
not dare to refuse his plays, they failed lamentably, notwith- 
standing the skilful manoeuvres of his friends, " sustained 
by the zealous efforts of his creditors." After this his 
influence declined rapidly, and he became an object of 
ridicule and contempt to those who had formerly solicited 
his suffrages. Finding himself compelled to seek a fresh 
field for the exercise of his talents, he established a sort 
of academy for embryo actresses, and cheated his pupils 
so outrageously that his relatives were forced to shut 
him up, on the plea of insanity, to save him from a worse 
fate. On his release, he resumed his literary pursuits, and 
when Madame du Barry rose to favour, hastened to make 
a bid for her patronage. 

La Morliere's dedication secured him a ready sale for 
his book and an invitation to sup with the countess, who 
accorded him " a gracious reception," and a present of 
one hundred louis. Here, however, his connection with 
Madame du Barry seems to have ended, very probably 
because the lady was annoyed by the ridicule to which 
the adulation of a person of such chequered antecedents 
exposed her. 

Other men of letters followed La Morliere's example, 
and among the volumes in the Versailles Library bearing 
the arms and device of Madame du Barry are four works 
prefaced by dedications to the favourite. 

The first of these is entitled : Le Royalisme, ou Memoires 
de du Barry de Saint-Aunet et de Constance de Cezelli, sa 
femme, anecdotes Mroiques sous Henry IV.^par M.de Limairac. 
The author in his dedication announces that heroism is 
the heritage of every Du Barry. 

80 



MADAME DU BARRY 

The second is an almanac for the year 1774, called 
the Almanack de Flore, printed in red, with a portrait 
of Madame du Barry as a sunflower turned to the sun, 
numerous illustrations, horoscopes, and so forth. It was 
the work of a certain M. Douin, " captain of cavalry," 
assisted by a M. Chevalier, " lieutenant of infantry," and 
one Douin, "formerly soldier of infantry." 

The remaining works are by writers of considerable 
reputation, at least in their own day. One, a translation 
from the Idyllen of Salomon Gessner, is from the pen of 
Jacques Henri Meister, the friend of Diderot and Grimm, 
who addresses the new mistress of Louis XV. in the 
following terms : 

" De la beaute, les talents et les arts 

Cheiissent tous l'aimable empire. 

Que l'eglogue au naif sourire 

Arrete un instant vos regards ! 

Comme vous, belle sans parure, 

Elle doit tout aux mains de la nature. 

Comme vous, elle a quelquefois 

Sous l'air d'une simple bergere, 

Charme les heros et les rois. 

» 

The other, a poetical recueil containing two comic operas, 
Les Etrennes de V Amour ^ and Le Nouveau Marie, is by 
Madame du Barry's friend, Cailhava ; and the favourite 
finds herself apostrophised on the first page as " beautiful 
Cytherea" and "amiable Hebe." 1 

1 E. and J. de Goncourt's La Du Barry, p. 65 note. Que'ratd's La 
France liiteraire, passim. 



8i 



CHAPTER VII 

Intervention of Madame du Barry on behalf of criminals 
condemned to death — Case of Appoline Gregeois — Case of 
the Comte and Comtesse de Louesme — Reaction in Madame 
du Barry's favour — Louis XV. confers the chateau and estate 
of Louveciennes upon the favourite — Its history — Description 
of the chateau — Review in the plain of Royal-Lieu — Madame 
du Barry and the Regiment de Beauce — Correspondence 
between Louis XV. and Choiseul on this matter — The 
" Roue " at Compiegne — Interview between him and the Due 
de Lauzun — Lauzun attempts to reconcile Choiseul with the 
favourite — But fails — The Prince de Cond6 does the honours 
of Chantilly to Madame du Barry. 

The new favourite was soon afforded an opportunity of 
using her influence in a more worthy manner than in 
patronising sycophantic men of letters. 

Although the punishments meted out to evil-doers in 
the eighteenth century were still reminiscent of the dark 
ages, the right of pardon possessed by the Crown was 
very rarely exercised. Louis XV., so indulgent towards 
his own follies and vices, was far from being so towards 
those of others, and was but little inclined to interfere 
with the course of the law, even in cases where a manifest 
injustice had been perpetrated ; the Queen never had 
any influence with her husband or his Ministers after the 
first few years of her married life ; Madame de Mailly, 
charitable and kind-hearted though she was, could never 
be persuaded to meddle with matters which did not im- 

Sz 



MADAME DU BARRY 

mediately concern her ; Madame de Chateauroux's reign 
was, of course, too short for her to have much oppor- 
tunity for deeds of mercy ; while Madame de Pompadour, 
who could have dictated her will to the Chancellor as to 
the other Ministers, was far more ready to people the 
dungeons than to open them. 

The condemned criminal had, therefore, up to the 
present, lacked an intercessor, but in Madame du Barry 
he was to find a very efficient one. Whatever may have 
been the faults of the new mistress — and, apart from her 
unchastity, prodigality and love of display are, after all, 
the only charges which can be truthfully brought against 
her — there can be no question that she was a woman 
of genuine kindness of disposition, in whose heart the 
sight of suffering never failed to awaken a responsive 
echo ; and on several occasions during her favour we 
find her intervening with success on behalf of those 
who would otherwise have suffered the extreme penalty 
of the law. 

Two of these cases occurred in the summer of 1769, 
only a few weeks after her recognition as Madame de 
Pompadour's successor. 

Harsh as was the old French law, it was particularly so 
in regard to infanticide. An edict of Henri II., bearing 
date February 1556, prescribed that a woman convicted 
of concealing her pregnancy should, in the event of her 
child's death, be adjudged guilty of homicide and pun- 
ished accordingly. This law was still in force, and in 
virtue of it, in June 1769, a girl named Appoline Gregeois, 
of the parish of Liancourt, in the Vexin, whose offence 
had been aggravated by several petty thefts, committed, 
apparently, with the view of providing for her accouche- 
ment, was brought to trial and condemned to death. 

83 



MADAME DU BARRY 

The case, in some way, was brought to the notice of 
Madame du Barry, who, touched with compassion, at 
once interested herself on the unhappy young woman's 
behalf. At her solicitation the procureur-gineral granted 
a respite, and, a week later, she had the satisfaction of 
learning that the capital sentence had been commuted to 
one of three years' imprisonment. 

A fortnight after the favourite's successful intervention 
on behalf of Appoline Gregeois, her good offices were 
again requisitioned, on this occasion to save a high and 
puissant seigneur and his lady from the consequences of 
armed resistance to the officers of the law, which in those 
days was construed into rebellion against the King. As 
this case, besides being one of the most sensational of the 
reign, contributed not a little towards reconciling the 
nobility to the new r&gime, it is deserving of something 
more than passing mention. 

On the borders of Champagne and the Orl^anais stood 
an old, ruinous chateau called Parc-Vieil, the seat of a 
certain Comte and Comtesse de Loiiesme. Like the 
chateau, the family of Loiiesme had fallen on evil times ; 
their estates had been sequestrated and their personal 
property as well ; but, as they had proclaimed their deter- 
mination of resisting vi et armis any attempt to seize the 
latter, they were, for some time, left in undisturbed 
possession of their old home. 

As ill-luck would have it, however, in the summer of 
1768, the bailiwick in which the chateau of Parc-Vieil 
was situated passed into the hands of a certain Dorcy, 
" a man of resolute character and an astute practitioner," 
who had no sooner been informed of the facts of the case 
than he determined to bring the Comte and Comtesse de 
Loiiesme to reason without a moment's delay. Accord- 

84 



MADAME DU BARRY 

ingly, on July i, between three and four o'clock in the 
morning, he arrived at Parc-Vieil, accompanied by two 
bailiffs named Jolivet and Chamon and the marechauss£e 9 
or mounted gendarmerie, of Saint-Fargeau and Courtenay. 

Although not precisely a stronghold, Parc-Vieil was 
far from an easy place to take by storm, as it was 
surrounded by a deep moat, the place of the drawbridge, 
which had long since broken down, being supplied by 
planks, which were removed at night. Dorcy summoned 
the garrison to surrender ; the count and countess 
appeared on the battlements, and defied him to do his 
worst, upon which, perceiving that further argument 
would be useless, the besiegers threw a bridge across the 
moat and advanced to the assault. 

The Comte de Louesme's threats of armed resistance, 
however, had been no idle talk. Hurrying down to the 
door, he thrust the barrel of a gun through a loop-hole, 
and threatened to fire upon the enemy if they approached 
a step nearer. The bailiff Jolivet seized the gun by the 
muzzle and attempted to wrest it from the grasp of the 
infuriated nobleman, with the result that it went off, and 
a general engagement ensued, in the course of which the 
Comtesse de Loiiesme, who had come to her husband's 
assistance, fired at Jolivet, wounding him mortally. 
Another of the attacking party was also fatally injured, 
and, in the end, Dorcy was compelled to raise the 
siege. 

Two days passed, which were utilised by the garrison 
in strengthening their defences, and by Dorcy in collecting 
reinforcements, and, on the night of July 3, quite an army 
appeared before the chateau, composed of the marechaussee 
of Saint-Fargeau, Courtenay, and Montargis, and a 
number of armed peasants, who had been called upon. 

85 



MADAME DU BARRY 

to support the majesty of the law. A second engage- 
ment followed, in which Godard, the coachman of the 
Loliesmes and an old retainer of the family, was killed, 
and the countess herself slightly wounded, whereupon the 
count yielded to the entreaties of his terrified servants 
and surrendered. 

The affair caused an immense sensation, for though 
such incidents had been common enough during the 
anarchy of the Fronde, they had since been of very rare 
occurrence. 1 As the persons implicated were of high 
rank, it was deemed inexpedient to leave the matter to 
the jurisdiction of the local courts, and, accordingly, the 
King issued letters patent directing that the case should 
be tried by the Parliament of Paris. For some reason, 
however, the trial was postponed for a year, and it was 
not until July 4, 1769, that the count and countess were 
arraigned before the Grande Chambre and Tournelle sitting 
together. 

The prisoners had practically no defence, and the only 
plea that their advocate could find to put forward was 
that the first execution had been irregular, inasmuch as 
Dorcy and his followers had commenced hostilities before 
sunrise. This was promptly overruled, and five witnesses 
having deposed that the Comtesse de Loiiesme had fired 
the shot which had been responsible for the death of the 
unfortunate Jolivet, both she and her husband were 

i 

1 There had, however, been a somewhat similar affair fourteen years 

earlier, when the Marquis de Pleumartin, a nobleman of Poitou, for 

whose arrest a warrant had been issued, shot the commander of the 

marichaussee who had come to arrest him. He was condemned to be 

beheaded, but, in order to spare his family the ignominy of a public 

execution, he was strangled in prison. — Journal du Marquis d'drge/isott, 

January 1755, cited by M. Vatel. 

86 



MADAME DU BARRY 

condemned to be beheaded, the sentence to be carried out 
on the following day. 1 

The rank of the condemned, their connection with 
several persons high in favour at Court, and particularly 
the fact that they were related to the Chancellor, 
Maupeou, combined to induce the belief that the capital 
sentence would be immediately commuted. The astonish- 
ment, therefore, was profound when it became known 
that the Chancellor had refused to take any steps on their 
behalf, declaring that the crime was one which the King's 
oath forbade him to pardon ; and that Louis XV., acting 
doubtless on his Minister's advice, had turned a deaf ear 
to the entreaties of the Comtesse de Moyon, the daughter 
of the Loiiesmes, and replied that the law must take its 
course. 

It was then that a friend of the unhappy pair determined 
to address himself to the Comtesse de Beam and, through 
her, to Madame du Barry, in the hope that the latter, 
whose sympathy had been so readily aroused by the mis- 
fortunes of a poor peasant-girl, might not be unwilling to 
interest herself in those of offenders of a more exalted 
station. 

The favourite at once promised to use her influence on 
the side of mercy, and, hastening to the King, threw herself 
on her knees before him and announced her intention of 
remaining in that position until his Majesty accorded her 
prayer. Louis, who had remained unmoved by the tears 
and supplications of the Comtesse de Moyon, was not 

1 Occasionally when the sentence was pronounced in the morning, it 
was executed the same day. Thus, in November 1746, the procureur- 
general sent a placet ordering the release of one Guillaume Cor, to 
which the reply was : " Remission. Affair concluded. Guillaume Cor 
has been hanged." 

87 



MADAME DU BARRY 

proof against the entreaties of his beautiful mistress, and, 
raising her up, exclaimed : "Madame, I am enchanted that 
the first favour you obtain from me should be an act of 
humanity." 

The sentence on the Comte and Comtesse de Loiiesme 
was commuted to imprisonment, and they were confined 
in the Chateau of Saumur, their relatives being charged 
with the expense of their maintenance. In 1 77^> their 
detention, in its turn, was commuted to banishment ; 
Louis XVI., at the same time, granting them a small 
pension. 

Not even the bitterest critic of Madame du Barry has 
ever ventured to suggest that the countess's conduct in 
this affair was prompted by any other motive than 
humanity ; nevertheless, it had all the results of a most 
skilful political move. Not only did it afford a striking 
proof of the lady's influence over the King, and thus 
decide many waverers to accord her their support, but, 
by inspiring a belief that this influence would be exercised 
in no unworthy manner, it conciliated not a few of those 
who had hitherto opposed her from disinterested motives. 
Outside the Court, too, it produced a strong reaction in 
her favour ; Voltaire, in a letter to the Comtesse de 
Rochefort, expresses his conviction that Madame du Barry 
was "a kind-hearted woman" {une bonne femme), and this 
opinion appears to have been widespread. " No one, 
unless he had personal motives for enmity to the 
favourite," writes Pidansat, in one of his rare excursions 
into the truth, "could fail to like her, and to reject the 
impressions that prejudiced people and her enemies had 
spread abroad about her ; she was so courteous, affable, 
and gentle. She had the virtue, rare, especially among 
her own sex, of never speaking ill of any one, and never 



MADAME DU BARRY 

permitting herself complaints and reproaches against those 
who envied her and those who had not only published 
abroad the not too creditable stories of her life, but had 
embroidered them with infamies and enormities." 1 



Madame de Montespan had had her Clagny, Madame 
de Pompadour her Bellevue, her Crecy, and her La Celle; 
it was, therefore, only in accordance with precedent that 
Madame du Barry should possess a country-seat befitting 
her high position ; and on July 24, a fortnight after the 
arrival of the Court on its annual visit to Compiegne, 
Louis XV. presented his new favourite with a brevet 
conferring upon her the tenancy for life of the beautiful 
chateau and estate of Louveciennes, situated a short 
distance from the left bank of the Seine and adjoining 
the park of Marly. 2 

1 Anecdotes , i. 152. 
8 Here is the brevet : 

" Brevet of the gift of the pavilion ofLouvetiennes 
in favour of ma dame la comtesse du < Barri, 
"Of July 24, 1 769.1 
"To-day, twenty -fourth of July, seventeen hundred and sixty-nine, the 
King being at Compiegne, and being desirous of giving to the dame 
comtesse du Barry a mark of the consideration with which his 
Majesty honours her, has accorded and made to her a gift of the 
pavilion of Louvetiennes, its gardens, and dependencies, the enjoyment 
of which has already been accorded by his Majesty to the comtesse de 
Toulouse, and after her to Mgr. le due de Penthievre, who has 
surrendered it, in order that the said dame comtesse du Barry may 
enjoy during her life the said pavilion and such dependencies as belong 
and appertain to it, in conformity with the plan deposed at the office of 
Director-General of his Majesty's Board of Works. . . . And, in assur- 
ance of his will, his Majesty has signed with his own hand the present 
brevet, and caused it to be countersigned by me, under-secretary of 

89 



MADAME DU BARRY 

The estate of Louveciennes, frequently abbreviated into 
Luciennes, originally belonged to a Marquis de Beringhen, 
who, in the year 1690, sold it to Louis XIV., or, to 
speak more precisely, exchanged it for another property* 
that of Chatellenie-de-Tournan, in Brie. At this period 
there was no house upon the estate, but Louis XIV. 
built one as a residence for Baron Deville, the Flemish 
engineer, who designed the famous hydraulic machine 
at Marly. Deville left France in 1708, whereupon the 
house was transformed into a little chateau and pre- 
sented for life to Mademoiselle de Clermont, daughter 
of the Prince de Conde and Mademoiselle de Nantes, 
upon whose death in 1741, Louis XV. gave it to the 
Comtesse de Toulouse, in recognition, it is believed, 
of her services in the King's amours with the sisters 
de Nesle. 1 The countess died in January 1766, and was 
succeeded as tenant by her only son, the Due de Penthievre. 
But, a year later, the duke's heir, the young Prince 
de Lamballe, who had recently married Marie Therese 
de Savoie, Princesse de Carignan, the beautiful and 
unfortunate lady who met so horrible a fate during the 
Revolution, died there also, the victim of a painful 
disease ; and his father, unwilling to reside any longer in 
a house which possessed for him such painful associations, 
gave the property back to the King. 2 

It is somewhat difficult to understand why Louveciennes 

State and his orders. (Signed) Louis (and, lower down,) Phely- 
peaux." — Archives nationales, Regis tre des Brevets, cited by E. and J. 
de Goncourt, La Du Barry, p. 64 note. 

1 The Due de Luynes, who describes the view from Louveciennes as 
charming and the house as very beautiful, says that the Queen had asked 
for it, but had been refused. 

2 Histoire de Madame du Barry, i. 254. 

90 



MADAME DU BARRY 

should have been chosen as the country-seat of a royal 
favourite, as the enjoyment to be derived from the 
beautiful view which its windows commanded must have 
been largely discounted by the fact that the hydraulic 
machine, with its unceasing clang, was situated imme- 
diately below the house ; while the building itself was 
far too small to accommodate even Madame du Barry's 
retinue of servants, to say nothing of the numerous 
entourage which etiquette demanded should accompany 
the King whenever he honoured one of his subjects by a 
visit. 

The hydraulic machine, unfortunately, could not well 
be removed even to gratify Madame du Barry, but every- 
thing that money could effect towards remedying the 
architectural deficiencies was done, and extensive additions 
and alterations were designed by Jacques Ange Gabriel, 
first architect to the King, and carried out by his son, the 
Comptroller of Buildings at Marly. 

These additions and alterations, which included the 
restoration of part of the chateau and the making of a 
bath-room and an orangery, were commonly reported to 
have involved the expenditure of enormous sums, but, 
according to a memoir of Gabriel, the total cost of the 
work was under 139,000 livres. 

" The principal dispositions of the building having 
remained unchanged," says M. Vatel, " one is still able 
to give a description of this residence. It consisted, on 
the ground floor, of an entrance-hall or vestibule 20 feet 
by 18, the lofty ceiling of which is decorated by a frieze, 
delicately sculptured, representing children at play. 
Then comes the dining-room, adorned with a beautiful 
old wainscot, ornamented with all the attributes of the 
country and the chase. Harvesters' rakes and hats, 

9i 



MADAME DU BARRY 

hunting horns and cymbals, arrows and quivers, all indi- 
cate the pleasures of the fields. In the centre of one 
side of the room is a magnificent marble chimney-piece. 

" The salon is decorated in the same style. Its length 
is 4 toises, its height i\ toises ; it is lighted by two large 
windows, and is approached by a glass door giving on 
to a flight of steps. The wainscot shows the same inter- 
sections as the dining-room, violins and shepherds' pipes, 
bagpipes and guitars, phcenix and peacock, and all around 
a frieze representing figures of women and children. 

" Above, on the first floor, was situated the apartment 
of Madame du Barry, which faced north, while on the 
south side was that of the King ; later, the Due de 
Brissac's. 1 

"The main building was prolonged by a gallery of 
considerable length, which was used as an orangery, and 
at the end of this was a chapel." 2 

The visit of the Court to Compiegne did not terminate 
without an unpleasant incident, occasioned by the con- 
tinued hostility of Choiseul to the new favourite. 

For the purpose of giving the Dauphin and his brothers 
some instruction in military matters, a " pleasure camp " 
was formed at Verberie, in the plain of Royal-Lieu, under 
the command of Baron Wilrmser, Lieutenant-General 
and Chief-Inspector of the German infantry regiments in 
the French service. The manoeuvres, which lasted three 
days, were witnessed by Louis XV., his three grandsons, 
Mesdames — and Madame du Barry; and Dumouriez, 
who had known the lady in the days when she presided 

1 Louis Hercule Timoleon de Coss6, Due de Brissac (1734.-1792), 
the penultimate lover of Madame du Barry. 

2 Histoire de Madame du Barry, i. 264. 

9* 



MADAME DU BARRY 

over the mindge of the " Rout" and had lately returned 
from Germany, was profoundly shocked at " the sight of 
the old King of France degrading himself by standing 
with doffed hat beside a magnificent phaeton, in which 
the Du Barry was reclining." 1 

Among the troops assembled at Verberie was the 
Regiment de Beauce, in which Elie du Barry, younger 
brother of Jean and Guillaume, held a commission. An 
exchange of civilities took place between the favourite and 
the officers of her brother-in-law's regiment ; the officers 
invited Madame du Barry to dine in the camp, and she, in 
her turn, entertained them to a magnificent banquet. In- 
deed, so excellent an understanding prevailed that when, on 
the last day of the manoeuvres, the favourite's carriage 
passed down the line, the Chevalier de la Tour-du-Pin, the 
colonel of the Regiment de Beauce, thought that he could 
do no less than order his men to present arms, an honour 
hitherto expressly reserved on these occasions for the 
King and members of the Royal Family. 

Choiseul, who, in his capacity as Minister for War, had 
also attended the manoeuvres, was highly incensed at the 
unprecedented marks of distinction accorded to his enemy, 
and severely reprimanded all concerned. His action was 
duly reported to Louis XV., who thereupon wrote him 
the following letter : 

LOUIS XV. tO THE Due DE CHOISEUL. 

" As I have promised to tell you all that occurs to me 
concerning you, I now acquit myself of that task. 

"It is said that you rated Wurmser, for what reason I 
know not, but that you let fall a good round oath. 2 

1 La Vie et les memoires du General Dumouriez (edit. Berville and 
Barriere), i. 141. 

3 The word in the original is too coarse tor modern print. 

93 



MADAME DU BARRY 

" It is said that you rated the Chevalier de la Tour- 
du-Pin, because Madame du Barry dined in the camp, 
and because the majority of the officers dined with her on 
the day of the review. 

" You also reprimanded Foulon, 1 in his turn. 

" You promised that I should hear no more from you 
about her. 2 

" I speak to you in confidence and friendship. You 
may be inveighed against in public ; it is the fate of 
Ministers, especially when they are believed to be 
antagonist to the friends of the master ; but, for all that, 
the master is always very satisfied with their work, and 
with yours in particular." 

Choiseul replies at great length, endeavouring to 
justify his conduct ; which, he maintains, has been 
grossly, and purposely, misrepresented, and expressly 
disclaiming all hostility to Madame du Barry. 

After acknowledging, in suitable terms, the expressions 
of kindness and confidence which the King's letter con- 
tained, he declares that his Majesty must know, " in the 
bottom of his soul," that he (Choiseul) is the particular 
object of the hatred of those about Madame du Barry. 
These he divides into two classes : " persons of seventy 
years of age and upwards " 3 and " young persons." His 
Majesty, he says, will know how much credit to attach to 

1 Joseph Francois Foulon de Doue, who said, or was reported to have 
said, that if the poor lacked bread, they could eat grass, and was hanged 
by the mob of Paris, July 22, 1789. He was at this time commissaire 
des guerres. 

2 From this it would appear that Choiseul had at length attempted 
some remonstrance with the King in regard to Madame du Barry, very 
probably after the supper at Bellevue. 

3 The Due de Richelieu. 



MADAME DU BARRY 

the statements and motives of the former ; as for the 
latter, " who imagine that they are doing something 
wonderful in deriding and braving your Minister," they 
merely excite contempt. 

He denies that he rated Baron Wiirmser, for it is not 
rating to say, " My dear WUrmser, hasten ; the King has 
been waiting half an hour." Never had he used im- 
proper language towards any officer. " Wiirmser is here 
and can speak the truth." 

He continues : 

" As regards the Regiment de Beauce, there is no more 
truth in that, though there is more appearance of truth. 
I never rated the Chevalier de la Tour-du-Pin ; I never 
spoke to him about either giving or accepting a dinner. 
I am, Sire, a thousand leagues above such wretched trifles. 
The day on which your Majesty witnessed the 
manoeuvres of the forty-two battalions, word was 
brought me that the Regiment de Beauce, after your 
Majesty had passed down the line, had saluted and 
rendered the same honours to Madame du Barry as to 
yourself. I did not say a word to the person who 
brought me the information. In the evening, in my 
apartments, the same thing was repeated, but I appeared 
to pay no attention to it. The following day, on going 
to see this brigade manoeuvre, I told M. de Rochambeau 
that it had been reported to me that the Regiment de 
Beauce had saluted other carriages than those of the 
Royal Family while his Majesty was in front of the line ; 
that that was not right ; and I charged him to warn 
M. de la Tour-du-Pin that he ought not to salute any 
one else when the King was in camp." 

The Minister then points out that La Tour-du-Pin 
has been promoted to the rank of brigadier, and that all 

95 



MADAME DU BARRY 

the requests made by the officers of his regiment (pre- 
sumably for leave) have been granted, " which proves 
that there is no ill-humour on my part." 

As for Foulon, " who is what is called an intriguer, 
with boundless ambition," he had not even so much as 
spoken to him since coming to Compiegne, and if he 
asserted that he had been reprimanded at any time, 
"under any circumstances whatever," in reference to 
Madame du Barry or anything which could possibly 
concern her, then " M. Foulon is an impudent liar." 

He concludes : 

" These details are a trifle long, Sire, for which I crave 
your indulgence ; but it behoves me to tell you the truth 
in regard to these small matters, in order that you may be 
able to appreciate in future the reports which may reach 
you. You will be told, Sire, that I have faults ; I earnestly 
desire to correct myself of them, and I reproach myself, 
in private, with them as bitterly as my enemies can 
do. They will add that I have committed mistakes 
as Minister ; that is only too true ; when I have been 
aware of them I have avowed them, and I am more 
sensible than any one can be of my imperfections and the 
limitation of my talents. But, Sire, I beg you to be 
persuaded that I fear neither the intriguers nor the 
results of criticism. I have two objects only, that of 
serving you well and of pleasing you. It is impossible 
for me not to believe that I serve your Majesty well, 
because I serve you to the best of my endeavour. It is 
difficult, Sire, for you to entertain any doubt as to my 
desire to please you, if you condescend to reflect that 
I hold everything from you ; that I neither hold nor have 
ever desired to hold anything except from you ; that you 
unite for me all the sentiments of duty, of personal 

96 



MADAME DU BARRY 

attachment, and of gratitude, and that I serve you by 
affection, and by affection the most zealous, which is 
better than mbition and talents." 1 

Although Jean du Barry could not, of course, appear 
at Court, he was none the less an important factor in the 
political situation. He had persuaded the favourite to 
obtain for his ugly, but keen-witted, sister " Chon " apart- 
ments in the chateau at Versailles and, through her, 
contrived to keep himself in constant communication 
with his former mistress, who entertained a high opinion 
of his astuteness and never failed to apply to him for 
advice whenever she found herself in any difficulty. 

In consequence of the incident at the review, the 
"Roue" came to Compiegne, charged by Madame du 
Barry with a mission of conciliation. Being somewhat 
doubtful as to the reception which his overtures might 
meet with were he to seek a personal interview with 
Choiseul, he addressed himself to the Minister's nephew, 
the Due de Lauzun, 2 and begged him to meet him the 
following morning in the forest, as he had something of 
the utmost importance to communicate. Not a little 
mystified, Lauzun consented, and found that Du Barry 
was desirous that he should take upon himself the role of 
peacemaker between his uncle and the favourite. 

" He complained to me," says the duke, " of the 
bitterness which the Due de Choiseul evinced towards 
Madame du Barry and himself; said that she was willing 

1 Revue de Paris, 1829, vol. iv. p. 49 et seq. The letters were 
communicated to this journal by Gabriel, Due de Choiseul, the 
Minister's nephew and successor, who possessed the originals. 

2 Choiseul and Lauzun's father, the Due de Gontaut, had married 
two sisters, the demoiselles Crozat. 

97 9 



MADAME DU BARRY 

to do justice to so great a Minister and desired ardently 
to live on good terms with him, and that he would not 
force her to become his enemy ; that she had more 
influence with the King than Madame de Pompadour had 
ever had, and that she would be very grieved if he 
compelled her to use it to his detriment. He begged me 
to relate this conversation to M. de Choiseul and to 
convey to him all sorts of protestations of attachment." 

Lauzun good-naturedly promised to do all in his power 
to promote a better understanding ; but, alas ! his efforts 
were vain. When he reached Choiseul's apartments, he 
found Madame de Gramont there, concerting with her 
brother new schemes for the discomfiture of her hated 
rival. With the eyes of his vindictive sister upon him, 
the duke received the favourite's overtures " with all the 
haughtiness of a Minister who is harassed by women and 
believes that he has nothing to fear," and declared that 
there was " war to the knife " between him and Madame 
du Barry ; while Madame de Gramont " made some 
outrageous remarks, in which she did not spare even the 
King.", 1 

In order to show his contempt for the favourite and 
her supporters, Choiseul, a few days later, quitted 
Compiegne and spent some weeks in visiting his country- 
seat at Chanteloup and various military stations in 
Lorraine, thus leaving the field clear for his adversaries. 

On the return of the Court from Compiegne, towards 
the end of August, Louis XV. paid a visit to the Prince 
de Conde, at Chantilly, and Madame du Barry was 
officially invited to accompany him. The descendant of 
the hero of Rocroix had long since decided to bow to the 

1 Memoires du Due de Lauzun (edit. 1858), p. 95 ft seq, 
98 



MADAME DU BARRY 

royal will, and had the new mistress been a foreign 
princess, she could hardly have been received with greater 
honours, her host placing his own caleche at her disposal 
when she wished to follow the chase, seating her beside 
him at table, and " seeming, in short, to dedicate to her 
the flowers, the illuminations, and the fanfares of his 
fetes.'' 7 



99 



CHAPTER VIII 

The two portraits of Madame du Barry, by Drouais, in the 
Salon of 1769 — The favourite's position at Court growing 
daily stronger — Her skilful self-effacement — Choiseul remains 
irreconcilable — Curious letter of Louis XV. to the Minister 
on the subject of his mistress — Madame du Barry, at the end 
of her patience, torments the King with complaints of 
Choiseul — The Court at Fontainebleau — " Madame la Com- 
tesse de Tonneau " — Visit of the King and the favourite to 
the financier Bouret — A charming compliment. 

In September, the Salon of the Louvre, which at this 
period was held every alternate year, opened its doors. 
The centre of attraction proved to be two portraits of 
the new favourite, both by Drouais, who had painted the 
last portrait of Madame de Pompadour, now at Hampton 
Court. " The better to ensure success," says Pidansat, 
" he had conceived the idea of representing Madame du 
Barry in two styles, that is to say, in both masculine and 
feminine attire." In the first, she is wearing a kind of 
hunting-coat and a waistcoat with military facings. "She 
has a flat coiffure, and two or three patches placed here 
and there relieve the mischievousness of this charming 
and saucy little face." 1 In the second, she appears "fresh 
and laughing, with the innocence of a young Flora," in a 
white gown adorned with a wreath of flowers, and with a 
string of pearls on her shoulder. 

J E. and J. de Goncourt's La Du Barry, p. 74, 
100 



MADAME DU BARRY 

The former portrait, we are told, appealed most to 
the ladies, and the latter to the men, which gave rise to 
the following verses : 

" Quels yeux ! que d'attraits ! qu'elle est belle ! 

Est-ce une divinite ? 
Non, e'est une simple mortelle, 

Qui le dispute a la Beaute. 

Entre vous qui dfkidera. 

Beau cavalier, aimable Flore ! 

L'Olympe jaloux se taira, 
Et l'univers surpris admire et doute encore.'* 1 

Diderot criticises these portraits very severely, expres- 
sing his opinion that the painter had ruined his work by 
over-anxiety to do himself justice, and even going so far 
as to insinuate that, but for the fact that the original 
happened to be the talk of the town, they would be 
unworthy even of passing mention ; but the majority of 
frequenters of the Salon cared little for artistic merit, and 
the crowd which surrounded them was so great that 
Horace Walpole, who was then in Paris, renounced his 
intention of visiting the exhibition. 

Both portraits have been several times engraved. The 
best engraving of Madame du Barry en habit de chasse is 
Beauvarlet's ; that of the portrait a la guirlande, as ft is 
generally called, by Gaucher. 

The homage paid to Madame du Barry by the Prince 
de Conde was a happy augury for the future. When the 
Court returned to Versailles, it soon became apparent that 
the quarantine to which the favourite had hitherto been 
subjected was steadily relaxing ; scarcely a day now passed 
on which some nobleman or grande dame did not come to 

1 Memoir es de Favrolle, ii. 47. 
101 



MADAME DU BARRY 

the conclusion that the claims of loyalty, or self-interest, 
demanded the sacrifice of personal feelings ; scarcely a 
day now passed on which fresh faces did not appear at 
the new mistress's toilette, fresh voices whisper compli- 
ments in her ear. And Madame du Barry, even her 
enemies were compelled to admit, conducted herself, in 
these early days of her reign, with exemplary discretion, 
and used her newly acquired power with the strictest 
moderation. Foreigners, like Horace Walpole, were 
surprised to find in her neither boldness, nor arrogance, 
nor affectation. 1 She seemed to shun publicity, was at 
pains to avoid exciting the jealousy of her own sex, and 
gave as yet no indication of the absurd ostentation and 
wild extravagance which were to mark the coming years. 
But if the growing belief that the King's passion was a 
lasting one, and the skilful self-effacement of the favourite 
cost the opposition many of its adherents, there was no 
diminution in the hostility of those who remained ; 
indeed, with each fresh desertion from their cause, 
Choiseul and his partisans seemed only to become more 
rancorous, more resolute than ever to prosecute the 
campaign until one or other party was driven from the 
field. 

1 " Thence to the Chapel, where a first row in the balconies was 
kept for us. Madame du Barri arrived over against us below, without 
rouge, without powder, and indeed sans avoir fait sa toilette ; an odd 
appearance, as she was so conspicuous, close to the altar and amidst 
both Court and people. She is pretty when you consider her ; yet so 
little striking, that I should never have asked who she was. There is 
nothing bold, assuming, or affected in her manner. Her husband's 
sister was along with her. In the Tribune above, surrounded by pre- 
lates, was the amorous and still handsome King. One could not help 
smiling at the mixture of piety, pomp, and carnality." — Horace Walpole 
to George Montagu, September 17, 1769. 

103 



MADAME DU BARRY 

Madame du Barry did not seek to play a political 
role ; she had not the smallest desire to make and unmake 
Ministers, select Ambassadors, appoint generals, and 
confer pensions and places, as her predecessor had done. 
All she asked was to live in peace and quiet as the King's 
mistress, to wear ravishing toilettes and costly jewels, to 
take the air in a gilded coach, to have a retinue of 
servants at her beck and call, and generally to enjoy the 
good things of life. Easy and pacific by nature, she 
would never have dreamed of injuring Choiseul had he 
not been the first to commence hostilities. She showed, 
indeed, as M. Maugras, the duke's latest biographer 
freely admits, the most meritorious patience and long- 
suffering under great provocation, and on several occa- 
sions made advances which plainly showed her desire for 
a better understanding. 1 

Left to himself, it is probable that Choiseul would 
have ended by becoming reconciled to the favourite. 
Like most powerful Ministers, he had made many and 
bitter enemies, and could hardly fail to perceive the 
danger of adding to their number a person whose in- 
fluence was increasing daily. Moreover, Madame du 
Barry asked nothing which he could not have conceded 
without loss of dignity. She did not demand his 
friendship, much less his homage ; she would have 
been well content had he only been willing to remain 
neutral. 

But Madame de Gramont and the Princesse de Beauvau 
had committed themselves far too deeply to draw back 
now, or allow their relative to do so. Peace with the 
favourite, they considered, would have involved a sacrifice 
of their pride, an intolerable humiliation in the eyes of 
1 Le Due et la Duchesse de Choiseul. 
103 



MADAME DU BARRY 

all the ladies of the Court, whose leaders they aspired to 
be, and was not to be thought of for a moment ; and 
Choiseul, yielding to the influence of his entourage, 
turned a deaf ear to the counsels of prudence, and 
marched steadily to his fall. 1 

In appearance, the relations between the Minister and 
the mistress were courteous, as had been the case between 
Madame de Pompadour and the most implacable of her 
enemies, the Comte d'Argenson, though in that instance 
neither party had had the least desire for a reconciliation. 
Madame du Barry wrote frequently to Choiseul, and 
always in very gracious terms. There were also several 
lengthy interviews between them, one of which lasted for 
three hours. But nothing could overcome the antipathy 
of the duke, who almost invariably refused the requests 
which the countess made to him. " A fortnight ago," 
writes Walpole, " the mistress sent for him (Choiseul) to 
ask a favour for a dependant. He replied that she 
might come to him. She insisted, and he went, and 
stayed above an hour, and yet did not grant what she 
asked." The writer expresses his opinion that " it was 
a thousand to one that some 6clat would happen " during 
the approaching visit to Fontainebleau, when Madame de 
Gramont and the Princesse de Beauvau (" the Choiseul- 
women "), who were then visiting friends abroad, would 
have returned. 2 

Louis XV., who detested changing his Ministers, and 
was, besides, genuinely attached to Choiseul, who, like 
Maurepas in days gone by, had the gift of rendering 
business " amusing," made every effort to bring about a 
rapprochement between the duke and the favourite, even 
going the length of writing the Minister a curious letter 
\ Walpole to Mann, October 9, 1769. a Ibid. 

104 



MADAME DU BARRY 

entreating him to abandon his attitude of hostility to 
Madame du Barry. 

Louis XV. to the Due de Choiseul. 

"; : . You manage my affairs very well, and I am satisfied 
with you, but be on your guard against those about you 
and the givers of advice {donneurs d'avis) ; that is what I 
have always hated and what I detest more than ever. 
You know Madame du Barry . . . she is pretty, I am 
content with her, and I recommend her every day to 
beware of those about her and the givers of advice, for 
you can well believe that she does not want for them ; 
she has no bitter feeling against you, she appreciates your 
talents, and wishes you no evil. The exasperation against 
her has been frightful, without justification for the most 
part ; they would be at her feet if . . . that is the way 
of the world. She is very pretty, she pleases me, that 
ought to suffice. Do you want me to take a girl of 
rank ? If the archduchess were such as I should desire 
her to be, I would take her to wife with great pleasure, 1 
for there must be an end of this, otherwise the beau sexe 
will always trouble me, for, very surely, you will not see 
on my part a dame de Maintenon. And that, I think, is 
enough for the present. I have no need to recommend 
secrecy to you about this : my writing is no better than 
yours. ^ 

1 At the beginning of June 1770, Louis wrote to the Comte de 
Broglie, the conductor of his secret correspondence with foreign 
Courts, instructing him to obtain private information about the Arch- 
duchess Elizabeth, " her person, from head to foot, her disposition," 
and so forth. 

2 Revue de Paris, 1829, vol. iv. p. 43. The letter was one of those 
which, as already mentioned, were contributed to the journal by 
Gabriel, Due de Choiseul, who possessed the originals. 

105 



MADAME DU BARRY 

"Does not this billet, which I have seen," observes 
Choiseul's friend, Baron de Gleichen, " express the desire 
for an arrangement, a prayer to lend himself to it, and 
the avowal, strange enough from a King, that the simple 
suffrage of his Minister would do more than all that lay 
in his royal power? It is most astonishing that the 
sensitive heart of M. de Choiseul should have resisted so 
much kindness, the desire to play a trick on his enemies, 
and the certainty of reigning more comfortably by the 
aid of a woman who would have been entirely at his 
orders." 1 

The intervention of the King was of no avail ; 
Choiseul, spurred on by Madame de Gramont and her 
coterie, remained inflexible, and Madame du Barry, having 
exhausted every means of conciliation, resigned herself to 
the struggle. 

While awaiting a favourable opportunity of ridding 
herself of her adversary, the weapons to which the lady 
had recourse were those which Madame de Pompadour 
had employed with success on more than one occasion, 
notably against Maurepas ; that is to say, she tormented 
her royal adorer with unceasing complaints about his 
Minister, until the unfortunate monarch began to detest 
the very name of Choiseul. Did she happen to be in an 
ill-humour : how could one be otherwise when M. de 
Choiseul refused to grant the very smallest favour that 
she asked of him ? Were she pale and tearful : what 
could his Majesty expect when M. de Choiseul's friends 
were permitted to say such cruel things about her ? 2 Nor 
did she any longer attempt to disguise her resentment 
against the Minister, and the harmony of the royal card- 

1 Souvenirs du Baron de Gleichen, p. 38. 
a he Due et la Duchesse de Choiseul* 
106 



MADAME DU BARRY 

and supper-parties was disturbed, whenever the duke 
happened to be present, by the contempt and dislike 
which the favourite never failed to exhibit towards him. 
" The grandpapa (Choiseul)," writes Madame du Deffand 
to Horace Walpole, "appears in very good spirits; 
nevertheless, he is not free from uneasiness. The lady 
does not conceal her hatred of him any longer. He 
receives every day little annoyances, such as not being 
nominated or invited to the soupers dos cabinets, and, in 
her apartments, grimaces when he happens to be her 
partner at whist ; mockeries, the shrugging of shoulders — 
in a word, all the little spiteful tricks of the school- 
girl. . . . Up to the present nothing has happened to 
injure his credit so far as regards his Ministry." 1 

Contrary to the confident anticipation of Horace 
Walpole, the visit of the Court to Fontainebleau passed 
off without any scandal, at least so far as the Choiseuls 
were concerned, though some unpleasantness arose in 
another quarter. 

The Due de Lauraguais, a nobleman with a predilection 
for indifferent verses and practical jokes, brought a 
courtesan of the baser sort from Paris, installed her in a 
suite of apartments in the town, and introduced her to all 
his friends as " Madame la Comtesse de Tonneau " — 
tonneau being synonymous with baril (cask), the pro- 
nunciation of which is the same as " Barry." 2 

Had this pleasantry, clumsy though it was, been per- 

1 Letter of November 22, 1769. 

2 An engraving of the time represents Madame du Barry seated in a 
cask, as was the custom of the ravaudeuses, mending stockings and shoes. 
M. Vatel is of opinion that this caricature inspired the jest, or possibly 
the jest the caricature. 

107 



MADAME DU BARRY 

petrated at the expense of Madame de Pompadour, the 
Due de Lauraguais would probably have had cause to rue 
it for the rest of his life. But that haughty dame's suc- 
cessor in the royal affections seems to have been rather 
amused than otherwise, and the only punishment which 
the duke received was an intimation that a few months* 
residence abroad might benefit his health ; 1 while the 
King gave orders to the police to drive all the femmes 
galantes they could find out of the town, a step which, 
Pidansat de Mairobert tells us, occasioned great annoy- 
ance and inconvenience to many gentlemen of the 
Court. 

As compensation for the impertinence of the Due de 
Lauraguais, Madame du Barry, while at Fontainebleau, 
was the recipient of a most charming compliment. 

It happened that Louis XV. was in the habit of paying 
a visit every autumn to a beautiful pavilion which the 
wealthy farmer-general Bouret had erected, at enormous 
cost, at Croix-Fontaine, in the forest of Senart. Bouret 
would appear to have built this pavilion, over which he is 
said to have nearly ruined himself, as a speculation, with 
the idea of selling it to Madame de Pompadour, who had 
a perfect mania for acquiring costly country-seats ; but 
the death of that lady occurred before his project was 
realised. His hopes of finding a purchaser, however, had 
revived with the advent of Madame du Barry, and he, 

1 About the same time, Lauraguais's former mistress, the beautiful and 
witty actress, Sophie Arnould, with whom the duke was still on 
friendly terms, displayed such " unexampled audacity " and " essential 
want of respect " towards Madame du Barry — in what way we are not 
told — that the King ordered her to be incarcerated in the " Hospital " 
for six months. The favourite, however, interceded for the popular 
prima donna and obtained her pardon. — Mr. R. B. Douglas' " Sophie 
Arnould," p. 102. 

108 



MADAME DU BARRY 

accordingly, resolved to leave no stone unturned to 
ingratiate himself with the new divinity. 

The royal visit this year was paid on September 28, 
Madame du Barry accompanying the monarch dressed in 
a habit de chasse similar to the one she had worn in 
Drouais's portrait. After the day's hunting, at which the 
killing of two stags had put the King into an excellent 
humour, Bouret entertained his distinguished guests to a 
sumptuous repast, which concluded, he begged them to 
step into an adjoining room, where, he said, he had 
prepared a surprise for them. It was a statue of Venus, 
modelled after that of Guillaume Coustou jfrfr, which had 
been sent to Potsdam the previous June, together with a 
Mars, commissioned by Frederick the Great at the same 
time. But the head of the goddess had been changed — 
to an admirable likeness of Madame du Barry. 

The favourite was, of course, enraptured, while 
Louis XV. was highly flattered at such a delicate tribute 
to his taste. 1 Nevertheless, Bouret did not succeed in 
inducing Madame du Barry to become the purchaser of 
his pavilion, and, some years later, having squandered the 
remainder of his fortune, he was found dead, under cir- 
cumstances which pointed to suicide. 

1 Bouret was certainly a born courtier. On another of his visits, 
Louis XV. perceived, on a table in the salon, a magnificently bound 
folio entitled, Le Vrai Bonheur. He opened it, and found on each 
page the words, " Le Roi est venu cbez Bouret" with the date, by 
anticipation, up to the year 1800. 



I09 



CHAPTER IX 

Successful intervention of Madame du Barry on behalf of a 
deserter sentenced to death — The Due d'Aiguillon — His 
enmity to Choiseul — His administration of Brittany — Rap- 
prochement between him and Madame du Barry — The 
favourite obtains for him the post of Captain-Lieutenant of 
the chevau-legers of the King's Household — Chancellor Mau- 
peou — His character and aims — Reasons for allying himself 
with the favourite and d'Aiguillon against Choiseul — The 
Abbe Terray — Montyon's portrait of him — He joins the Du 
Barry party — Meeting of the Council on December 21, 1769 
—Resignation of Maynon d'Invau and appointment of 
Terray as Comptroller-General. 

Shortly after the return of the Court from Fontainebleau, 
Madame du Barry was afforded another opportunity of 
giving proof of that kindness of heart and sympathy for 
misfortune which goes so far to efface the memory of her 
faults. 

A young man of Aumale, named Charpentier, having 
quarrelled with his relatives, left his native town and 
enlisted in the Regiment du Mestre de Camp-General, a 
cavalry corps stationed at Provins. Here his conduct was 
very satisfactory, until one fine day he was, according to 
his own account, seized with home-sickness and deserted, 
taking with him his horse and uniform, with the intention 
apparently of returning them when he had gone two or 
three posts. This, however, he had no opportunity of 
doing, as his absence was discovered almost immediately, 

no 



MADAME DU BARRY 

and he was promptly pursued and brought back. A 
court-martial followed, and the prisoner's offence being 
greatly aggravated by the fact of his having carried off his 
horse and uniform, the officers who tried him had no 
option but to pass sentence of death. 

Fortunately for Charpentier, the commander of his 
regiment, the Chevalier d'Abense, took compassion upon 
the unhappy young man, and not only postponed the 
execution of the sentence to the farthest possible date, but 
wrote to his friend, the Comte de Belleval, who held a 
commission in the Chevau-Ugers of the King's House- 
hold, explaining the circumstances of the case, and begging 
him to use what influence he possessed to obtain a pardon 
from the King. 

On receiving the chevalier's letter, Belleval laid the 
matter before his commanding officer, the Due d'Aiguillon, 1 
who told him that the surest way of obtaining the favour 
he sought would be to endeavour to interest Madame du 
Barry in his proteges case, and promised to take him to 
the countess's apartments later in the day. We will follow 
the example of M. Vatel and allow Belleval to relate the 
sequel in his own words, thereby presenting the reader 
with probably the best pen-portrait of Madame du Barry 
which we have : 

" At the hour appointed, I presented myself at M. 
d'Aiguillon's hotel in full uniform, and he, faithful to his 
promise, was waiting for me, and went straight to the 
favourite's apartments, like one to whom doors are always 
open. 

1 Armand Vignerod Duplessis Richelieu (1720-1788), son of 
Armand Louis de Vignerod, Marquis de Richelieu, Due d'Aiguillon, 
and Anne Charlotte de Crussol-Florensac. Until his father's death, in 
1750, he bore the title of Due d'Agenois. 

Ill 



MADAME DU BARRY 

" I had already often seen the countess, but from a dis- 
tance ; enough to allow me to judge of her renowned 
beauty in the ensemble, but not enough to study its details. 
She was carelessly sitting, or rather I should say reclining, 
on a large fauteuil, and wore a dress of white material 
with garlands of roses, which I see even now as I write, 
fifteen years later. 

" Madame du Barry was one of the prettiest women at 
the Court, where there were so many, and assuredly the 
most bewitching, on account of the perfections of her 
whole person. Her hair, which she often wore without 
powder, was fair and a most beautiful colour, and she had 
such a profusion that she was at a loss to know what to do 
with it. Her blue eyes, widely open, had a kind and 
frank expression, and she fixed them upon those to whom 
she spoke, and seemed to follow in their faces the effect of 
her words. She had a tiny nose, a very small mouth, and 
a skin of dazzling whiteness. In short, she quickly 
fascinated every one, and I well-nigh forgot my petition 
in the delight I experienced in gazing at her. I was then 
about twenty-five years of age. She readily perceived my 
embarrassment, as did the Due d'Aiguillon, who very 
adroitly turned it off with one of those compliments which 
he knew so well how to make. I then presented my 
petition, adding some explanation and laying stress on the 
necessity there was for haste, and on the hope that we 
all placed in her for saving the life of this unhappy 
Charpentier. 

" * I give you my promise to speak to the King, 
Monsieur,' she answered, ' and I trust that his Majesty 
will not refuse me this favour. Monsieur le Due knows 
well that his friends are mine, and I thank him for not 
forgetting it/ she added, turning towards him with a 

112 



MADAME DU BARRY 

charming smile. She then questioned me about my 
family, and as to how long I had served, and dismissed us, 
telling me that I should soon have news from her. She 
gave her hand to the Due d'Aiguillon, who kissed it, 
observing : * This is for the Captain-Lieutenant ; is there 
nothing for the company ? ' which made her laugh ; and 
she bestowed upon me the same favour, of which I 
hastened to take advantage. 

" The following day, while I was on guard, a lackey, in 
the well-known livery of the countess, who had been to 
our hotel to inquire for me, approached and informed me 
that his mistress expected me at six o'clock. At the 
hour appointed, I presented myself at the door of her 
apartment and was admitted. There were several persons 
there, and the King was standing with his back against the 
chimney-piece. On perceiving me, Madame du Barry 
said to his Majesty : ' Sire, here is my chevau-leger, who 
comes to render his thanks to your Majesty.' 

" ' Thank, in the first place, Madame la Comtesse,' said 
Louis XV. to me, * and tell your frortg6 that, if I pardon 
him, he must, by his attention to my service, cause the 
fault of which he has been guilty to be forgotten.' 

" I do not very well know what answer I made the 
King ; but the Due d'Aiguillon, who was present, assured 
me that I had said all that was necessary, and that the 
King had been satisfied with me and pleased that I had 
had the tact to choose Madame du Barry to ask for 
Charpentier's pardon. The same evening, the news was 
despatched to Provins, where the poor man was expecting 
nothing but death. He afterwards made a good soldier, 
and became an example to his regiment. 

" The story which I told my comrades of the goodness 
of the countess was received with great applause, and the 

113 h 



MADAME DU BARRY 

Vicomte du Barry, our cornet, had nothing but praises 
and compliments to report to her. We always believed 
that he did so, for on every occasion she showed a marked 
preference for the chevau-Ugers above all the other troops 
of the King's Household. For my part, I was always 
afterwards treated with kindness, and I often met her at 
the hotel of the Duchesse d'Aiguillon, to whom she was 
much attached on account of her husband. I never again 
visited her apartments, save on two occasions, to seek 
M. d'Aiguillon on business connected with our company, 
when I had not found him at his hotel and the matter was 
urgent. But the place of a simple chevau-Uger was not in 
the midst of all the courtiers who thronged her apartment, 
to pay their court to her or to meet his Majesty there. 
She understood that, and had the delicacy — though she 
treated me very kindly when I met her — never to ask 
why I did not visit her, as many women would have done. 
It was a different matter at the Due d'Aiguillon's, who 
was our chief, and where the ' red-coats ' often found 
themselves, or at the Marechale de Mirepoix's, where I also 
went frequently. ' Ah ! there is my chevau-Uger* was 
the phrase which the countess never failed to employ 
when she caught sight of me, and she would inquire if 
there was anything she could do for me. As I invariably 
replied that there was not, she said, ' He always replies 
" No," when there are so many who would answer "Yes." 
My dear duke, are they all like that in your company ? ' 
' Assuredly not,' answered the Due d'Aiguillon, and 
the laughter and gaiety which followed seemed as if it 
would never come to an end." x 

The Due d'Aiguillon, who figures in the above inci- 

1 Souvenirs d'un Chevau-Uger , p. 128, et seq. 
114 



MADAME DU BARRY 

dent, was Choiseul's most bitter enemy. The antagonism 
between them was something more than the conflict of 
personalities ; it was one of principles and ideas. " M. de 
Choiseul belonged to the Jansenists, to the Parliamen- 
tarians, to the party of reform in Church and State, to the 
first awakening of Liberty, to the conspiracy of the future. 
M. d'Aiguillon belonged to the traditions of his family, to 
the school of his great-uncle, Cardinal de Richelieu, to 
the wisdom of the past ; to the theory of the right of 
absolute power, to the party of social discipline, to the 
doctrine which makes of monarchical government a good 
pleasure tempered by a theocracy. In these two men 
everything is antagonistic, the internal administration of 
the country as well as the plan of her alliances on the 
map of Europe. They are the two champions and the 
two extremities of their age." 1 

After having been in disgrace for a number of years, in 
consequence of the attachment which had once existed 
between himself and the King's mistress, Madame de 
Chateauroux, d'Aiguillon was eventually restored to 
favour and made Governor of Brittany, in which capacity 
he gained the victory of Saint- Cast over an English force 
which had landed there with the intention of ravaging the 
coast. His internal administration of that somewhat un- 
ruly province was less happy, and though M. Vatel, whose 
predilection for Madame du Barry appears to extend to 
her friends, has attempted his defence, there can be little 
doubt that his conduct, which aroused the bitterest 
hostility among all classes,[was tyrannical and high-handed 
to the last degree, if not worse. 

The Parliament of Brittany was almost as independent 
as that of Paris, and, in 1764, that court forbade the 
1 E. and J. de Goncourt's La Du Barry, p. 48. 



MADAME DU BARRY 

collection of a tax which the Governor had levied without 
obtaining its consent. The recalcitrant magistrates were 
summoned to Versailles, in the hope that the frown of 
Majesty might overcome their resistance, but they declined 
to yield, whereupon d'Aiguillon arrested several, including 
the procureur-gtntraly La Chalotais, 1 on a charge of sending 
threatening anonymous letters to the King, exiled others, 
and organised a new Parliament. The Bretons, however, 
resisted the new tribunal with all their native stubbornness, 
and, after a struggle of four years, the Government gave 
way, the old judges were restored to their places, and 
d'Aiguillon recalled. 

The duke returned to Versailles, eager for revenge 
upon Choiseul, to whose machinations he attributed the 
check which his projects had sustained, and placed himself 
at the head of the devout party, the sworn enemies of the 
Minister. The position of this party and of its leader 
had, however, been much weakened of late years by the 
expulsion of the Jesuits and the successive deaths of the 
Dauphin — the intimate friend and protector of the duke 

1 D'Aiguillon was particularly bitter against La Chalotais, who had 
accused him of personal cowardice at the battle of Saint-Cast. It 
appears that, in the course of the conflict, the duke mounted to the top 
of a windmill, in order to direct the operations of his troops. La 
Chalotais remarked that in the battle " the troops were covered with 
glory, and their general with meal " ; in other words, that the duke had 
gone into the mill to seek shelter. The charge, which was not made 
until eight years after the event, was, of course, groundless, as all 
contemporary accounts of the battle agree in eulogising the conduct of 
d'Aiguillon, and, whatever his faults may have been, he was certainly 
not lacking in courage, and, when a mere lad, had been twice severely 
wounded and mentioned in despatches for conspicuous bravery. 
However, the hatred with which the arbitrary governor was regarded 
was such that the slander found ready credence, and has been repeated 
by several historians. 

116 



MADAME DU BARRY 

— the Dauphiness and the Queen ; and d'Aiguillon's 
prospects of triumphing over his enemy seemed small 
indeed. 

Under these circumstances, it was absolutely necessary 
for d'Aiguillon to seek new allies, and, accordingly, he 
turned towards Madame du Barry, who, he judged, would 
be ready enough to respond to the advances of one who 
was not only an important personage himself, but able to 
secure for her the countenance and support of some of the 
greatest names in France. A consummate courtier, the 
former lover of Madame de Chateauroux had no difficulty 
in gaining a complete ascendency over the easy-natured 
favourite, who soon conceived for him a sincere friendship, 
which, if any reliance is to be placed in contemporary 
gossip, was not long in developing into a warmer 
feeling. 

As an earnest ot favours to come, on the death of the 
Due de Chaulnes, in the autumn of 1769, Madame du 
Barry succeeded in procuring for d'Aiguillon the post of 
Captain-Lieutenant ot the Chevau-Ugers of the King's 
Household. This was not only a lucrative, but a very 
important, position, as it afforded its possessor frequent 
opportunities for private interviews with the King ; 1 and 
Choiseul, anxious that it should be filled by one of his 
own party, had endeavoured to obtain it for his nephew, 
the Vicomte de Choiseul. The news that the relative of 
the Minister had been passed over in favour of the 
nominee of the mistress created general surprise, and 
plainly indicated that the influence of the once all- 
powerful Choiseul was no longer to be undisputed. 

1 The King himself was Captain of the Chevau-Ugers, and both he 
and Louis XIV. always wore the uniform of the corps when with the 
army in the field. 

117 



MADAME DU BARRY 

The rapprochement between d'Aiguillon and Madame 
du Barry, assuring as it did to the former an advocate 
with the King, and to the latter the support of the devout 
party, greatly strengthened the hands of both in the 
struggle against their common enemy. Nevertheless, it 
may be doubted whether they would have ventured so 
quickly to assume the aggressive had not circumstances 
secured them the adhesion of two allies as ambitious and 
unscrupulous as d'Aiguillon himself and far more able, the 
Chancellor Maupeou and the Abbe Terray. 

Ren6 Nicolas de Maupeou came of an ancient Parlia- 
mentary family, who more than a century before had 
counted fifty kinsfolk by blood and marriage in the 
Parliament of Paris alone. His father, Rene Charles 
de Maupeou, had successively filled the posts of First 
President, garde-des-sceaux and vice-chancellor, and in 
September 1768, on the resignation of Lamoignon, had 
been appointed Chancellor, a position which he resigned 
twenty-four hours later in favour of his son. 

The elder Maupeou, who is described as " of noble and 
majestic figure, dignified countenance, and amiable dis- 
position," seems to have been both popular and respected ; 
the younger, in nearly every respect the exact antithesis of 
his father, was probably the best hated man of his time ; 
indeed, it would be difficult to name any Minister who has 
been to the same degree the object of public execration. 
If we are to credit only half of what we read about him, 
it would appear that such a monster of malevolence, 
ingratitude, avarice, treachery, hypocrisy, and general 
depravity had never before been seen, while " he bore on 
tes countenance all the signs of the baseness of his soul, 
and his person inspired an instinctive repulsion." 1 

L \ Here is his portrait drawn by his biographer, M. Flammerraont : 

118 

) 



MADAME DU BARRY 

However that may be, Maupeou was a man of consider- 
able ability and extraordinary tenacity of purpose, an 
indefatigable worker — he rose as early as four o'clock in 
the morning — a shrewd judge of his fellows, and gifted 
with a perfect genius for subterranean intrigue. 

Maupeou had owed his appointment to Choiseul, 1 and 
had at first affected for his patron an almost repulsive 
idolatry. He was wont to declare that nothing could 
induce him to change his residence, because from his 
windows he could at least perceive the chimneys of the 
Hotel de Choiseul ; boasted that " he bore on his heart 
the livery of the Minister," and never spoke of him but 
as " our good duke." But even while thus protesting his 
unswerving devotion to his interests,Maupeouwas diligently 
seeking the means to effect his ruin. 

The Chancellor's desire to secure the fall of Choiseul 
was not, as was the case with d'Aiguillon, prompted by 
any personal feeling, but simply by expediency ; the 
Minister stood between Maupeou and the realisation of a 
project whereby he hoped to assure for ever his political 
fortunes. 

For more than forty years the relations between the 
Crown and the Parliaments had been exceedingly strained. 

" He was f a little black man.' He had a low forehead, bushy and very 
black eyebrows, keen, cold, piercing eyes, a prominent nose, a large 
and disagreeable mouth, a retreating chin, a bilious complexion, gener- 
ally white, often yellow, and sometimes green ; at the Court they 
called him * la bigarrade (sour orange).' In a word, he was frankly 
hideous." — Le Chancelier Maupeou et les Parlements, p. 7. 

1 Choiseul was not blind to the dangerous and intriguing character of 
Maupeou, but he deemed himself strong enough to be able to ignore it. 
When some of his friends protested against the appointment, he replied : 
" I am aware that Maupeou is a scoundrel, but he is the most capable 
person for the Chancellorship. If he misbehaves himself, I shall get rid 
of him." 

119 



MADAME DU BARRY 

The magistrates, who derived their authority from the 
King, were no longer satisfied with exercising their judicial 
functions ; they now sought to band themselves together 
and form a new organisation in the body politic, a tribunal 
which should be the organ of the nation, the guardian 
of its liberties, interests, and rights, the judge between 
the King and people, the interpreter ofthe sovereign's 
will. 

Such pretensions, as may be imagined, were strongly 
resented by Louis XV., who entertained as exalted a 
conception of the royal prerogative as his predecessor, and 
who repeatedly asserted in his solemn declarations, in his 
beds of justice, that the will of the sovereign was para- 
mount and must be obeyed. 

The importance of the question at issue can hardly be 
overestimated. The Parliaments did not lay claim to the 
right of remonstrance — that was not contested ; they 
claimed to enjoy the right of refusing to register the royal 
edicts ; in other words, to impose an absolute veto on the 
measures of the King. " If it was decided in favour of 
the King," wrote Madame d'Epinay, voicing, in all 
probability, the opinion of her friend Rousseau, the 
consequence would be to render him absolutely despotic. 
If it was decided in favour of the Parliament, the King 
would possess hardly more authority than the King of 
England." 1 

Although the difference between the parties was of such 
long standing, a settlement seemed as far off as ever ; and, 
in the meanwhile, undignified and vexatious disputes were 
of frequent occurrence, which on several occasions had been 
carried to such lengths as to throw the whole judicial 
machinery of the realm into hopeless disorder for months 
1 Cited by M. Vatel in Histoire de Madame du Barry, ii. 15. 



MADAME DU BARRY 

together. The King would submit an edict to the 
Parliament ; the Parliament would remonstrate ; the King 
would hold a Bed of Justice and insist on the registration 
of the edict ; the Parliament would refuse and suspend its 
functions ; the King would order the recalcitrant judges 
to resume their duties and exile those who disobeyed, with 
the result that all litigation would come to a standstill 
and great hardships be inflicted on unfortunate suitors, 
who were compelled to wait for redress until a truce had 
been concluded. 

Out of this impasse the keen eye of Maupeou perceived 
that there were but two ways of escape : the re-establish- 
ment of the States- General, or the overthrow of the 
existing Parliamentary institutions and the creation of new 
courts, the members of which should be compelled to 
confine themselves to their judicial functions. For the 
first, the time was not yet ripe, in addition to which it 
would not have in any way furthered his designs, which 
were to strengthen the authority of the Crown, " en la 
retirant de la poussiere du grejfe, ou elle ttait menacie de 
sensevelir" and by so doing render himself indispensable 
to the King. But the second might be accomplished if 
Louis XV. could be inspired with the resolution necessary 
for a vigorous coup d ' Etat. 

To carry out any measure of this kind, however, so 
long as Choiseul retained his credit with the King, was 
out of the question, for Choiseul had continued the 
policy of his predecessor, Cardinal de Bernis, or rather 
that of their common protectress, Madame de Pompadour, 
and supported the Parliaments, who were devoted to him. 
The first step, therefore, to the overthrow of the Par- 
liaments must be the overthrow of Choiseul ; and it 
was with this object in view that the Chancellor deter- 

121 



MADAME DU BARRY 

mined to cast in his lot with d'Aiguillon and Madame 
du Barry. 1 

The Abbe Terray, who followed the Chancellor into 
the camp of the favourite, was, like Maupeou, a member 
of the Parliament ; like him, ambitious and absolutely 
devoid of principle ; and, by a singular coincidence, like 
him again, a man of singularly unprepossessing appear- 
ance. " He was a very extraordinary being, this Abbe 
Terray, and, happily, of a very rare species. His exterior 
was rugged, sinister, even terrifying : a tall, bent figure, 
haggard eyes, a furtive glance, which conveyed the im- 
pression of falseness and perfidy, uncouth manners, a harsh 
voice, a dry conversation, no openness of soul, judging 
every human being unfavourably because he judged them 
by himself, a laugh rare and caustic. 2 Although he was 
harsh to the last degree to those unable to resist or injure 
him, he showed himself immoderately complaisant and 
disgracefully servile towards those whom he believed to 
have credit. Never did there exist a more icy heart or 
one more inaccessible to affections, save that for sensual 
pleasures, or for money, as a means of procuring those 
pleasures." 3 

Such is the description given of him by one of his 
contemporaries. 

Terray's intellectual qualities, however, as his critic 
readily admits, were vastly superior to his moral, and, 

1 M. Flammermont's Le Qhnnceller Maupeou et les Parlements, p. 153. 
Biographie generate, article Maupeou, by M. Gregoire. 

2 On one occasion, when dining at the house of a friend, who knew 
his character intimately, Terray began to laugh, upon which his host 
remarked to his neighbour at the table, " See ! the abbe is laughing. 
Some one must have met with misfortune." 

3 Montyon's Particularites et Observations sur les Controleurs-Generaux 
des Finances de 1660 a 1791. 

122 



MADAME DU BARRY 

employed for worthier ends, might have atoned for his 
vices. Heir to a wealthy uncle enriched by speculations 
in Mississippi stock, he had largely increased his patrimony 
through his connection with the scandalous Malisset Asso- 
ciation, formed to raise the price of grain, and in which 
Louis XV. himself was popularly believed to be interested, 
and was now a rich man. In the Parliament of Paris, 
which he had entered when very young, he had early 
gained distinction and had taken a leading part in the 
campaign against the Jesuits, receiving as the reward of 
his services the rich abbey of Molesmes. At this period 
he had been a follower of Choiseul, but chagrin at the 
duke's refusal to recognise his claims to advancement and, 
more particularly, to the post of Comptroller-General, 
when vacated by Laverdi in the autumn of 1768, had 
decided him to join his fortunes to those of Maupeou 
and work with him for the downfall of the haughty 
Minister. 

The cabal gained its first success in the closing days of 
1769. 

Maynon d'Invau, who had replaced Laverdi as Comp- 
troller-General in the autumn of the previous year, had 
found his new post very far from a bed of roses, for the 
difficulties which his predecessor had bequeathed him 1 
were aggravated by the growing antagonism between 
Choiseul and Maupeou, and between the King and the 
magistracy. His expedients for remedying the lament- 
able condition of the finances having been rejected by the 

1 Laverdi had left the debt 115 millions since the Peace ; the sinking- 
fund was only a bait, for much more was borrowed than was extinguished. 
In January 1769, the revenue had been forestalled to the amount of 
thirty-two and a half million livres. — Martin's Histoire de France jusqu'en 
1789, xvi. 246. 

123 



MADAME DU BARRY 

Parliament of Paris, and a bed of justice having failed to 
bring the recalcitrant judges to reason, he endeavoured to 
steer a middle course between the wishes of the Court and 
the Parliament ; and in a council held at Versailles, on 
December 21, laid upon the table a modified form of his 
original proposals, containing a scheme for the reduction 
of expenses and the abolition of a number of financial 
offices, as a concession to the gentlemen of the robe. 

Choiseul supported his -prottg&i Maupeou attacked 
him vigorously ; the King sided with the Chancellor, 
broke up the council in a passion, and, retiring to his 
cabinet, slammed the door violently behind him. Then 
Maupeou was sent for, and remained in conference with 
the King for half an hour, as the result of which it was 
decided, in anticipation of Maynon d'Invau's resignation, 
which was tendered almost immediately, to offer the post 
of Comptroller-General to Terray, whom the Chancellor 
declared to be the only man capable of initiating and 
carrying through the measures that were needed. 

The fall of Maynon d'Invau and the appointment of 
Terray was a severe blow to the prestige of Choiseul, and 
though the Minister himself affected to make light of the 
matter, its significance was not lost upon his friends. " I 
supped on Tuesday with the grand-papa (Choiseul),'* 
writes Madame du Deffand to Walpole ; " he is still in 
the best of spirits ; he will be like Charles VII., of whom 
it was said that no one could lose a kingdom more 
gaily." 1 

I Letter of December 26, 1769. 



124 



CHAPTER X 

Lss Loges de "Nantes — The favourite removes to the apartments 
of the late Dauphiness — Her position as a lady of the Court 
generally acknowledged — Alarm of Choiseul— His hopes of 
ultimate victory based on the anticipated support of Marie 
Antoinette — Arrival of the Dauphiness — Supper-party at La 
Muette — " What is the Comtesse du Barry's function at 
Court ? " — Marie Antoinette receives the favourite " without 
affectation " — Intrigues of the Due de la Vauguyon — The 
Dauphin and the suppers at Saint-Hubert — Mesdames en- 
lighten him in regard to Madame du Barry — Conversation be- 
tween the Dauphin and Marie Antoinette — Letters of the Dau- 
phiness to Maria Theresa — Mesdames and Marie Antoinette 
— Mesdames incite the young princess against the favourite — 
Quarrel at Choisy between Madame du Barry and the dames 
du palais of the Dauphiness — Exile of the Comtesse de Gra- 
mont — Marie Antoinette intercedes with Louis XV. on her 
behalf — The King refuses to permit the countess to return to 
Court — Indignation of the Dauphiness against the favourite — 
Her treatment of Madame du Barry attributed to the in- 
fluence of Choiseul. 

The year 1770 opened for Madame du Barry with a 
fresh proof of the royal favour. On the counterscarp ot 
the fortifications of Nantes stood a number of houses, 
booths, and shops, the property of the Crown. The rent 
derived from these structures, estimated by contemporary 
writers at 40,000 livres per annum, had in 1769 been be- 
stowed by Louis XV. on the Duchesse de Lauraguais, who, 
however, only lived to enjoy it a few months, and, on 

125 



MADAME DU BARRY 

January i , the King, by way of a New Year's gift, handed 
his mistress a brevet conferring a life interest in Les 
Loges de Nantes upon her. 

This present was extremely acceptable to Madame du 
Barry, who had not yet received any considerable pecuniary 
favours, and had, therefore, been able to indulge in but 
f&w of the hundred extravagances for which her soul 
yearned. Deeming it inadvisable, until her position was 
assured, to make application to the King, she had been 
compelled to have recourse to the "Roue" who, in con- 
fident expectation of a bountiful return, had cast his bread 
upon the waters freely enough. However, in the years to 
come, the countess was destined to receive ample com- 
pensation for these few months of self-denial, and her 
astute brother-in-law to reap a rich reward for having, as 
he affirmed, well-nigh beggared himself in assisting the 
lady to maintain her new dignity. 1 

Early in the following spring, the favourite removed 
from the apartments on the rez-de-chausse'e of the Cour 
Royale, which she had occupied since her installation at 
Versailles, to those of the late Dauphiness, Marie Josephe 
of Saxony. These apartments, which had never before 
been occupied by a mistress, were situated on the second 
floor of the chateau, above the Cabinets of Louis XV., 
and formed part of what were known as the Petits 
Cabinets. 2 In the interval between the death of the 

1 In his letter to Malesherbes, already cited, the "Roue" says : "In 
order to sustain her new position during the first fifteen months, during 
which she received no pecuniary favour, I engaged the remainder of my 
fortune." 

2 The " Petits Cabinets," sometimes called the " Petits Apparte- 
ments," were the portion of the King's apartments situated above his 
Cabinets, or state rooms, which were on the first floor of the chateau. 

126 



MADAME DU BARRY 

Dauphiness and the installation of Madame du Barry they 
had undergone various modifications, and now comprised 
an ante-chamber, a dining-room, a cabinet de compagnie, a 
private cabinet, a library, an arriere-bibliotheque, a ward- 
robe and a bath-room ; while a private staircase com- 
municating with the King's apartments on the floor below 
enabled the monarch to visit his mistress at any hour he 
pleased without being observed. 1 

Although preparations for Madame du Barry's occupa- 
tion of these apartments seem to have been in progress 
throughout the previous winter, the lady was dissatisfied 
with their condition ; and, accordingly, advantage was 
taken of the annual visit of the Court to Fontainebleau in 
the following autumn to have them redecorated and re- 
gilded, an army of workmen being employed in order to 
complete the work before the favourite's return. Two 
years later, the countess came to the conclusion that the 
bath-room was not quite as commodious as it might be 
made, and insisted on new baths being constructed ; a 
request, or command, which was duly complied with, 
although at this time the unfortunate Director of the 
Board of Works appears to have been in dire straits for 
lack of funds, and writes to Terray, the Comptroller- 
General : 

Here Louis XV. had his library, kitchens, where he occasionally amused 
himself by experiments in cooking, of which he was almost as fond as his 
successor of carpentry, distilleries, a bath-room and, on one of the upper 
terraces, his aviaries. Here also he gave supper-parties to his intimate 
friends and received visits from mattresses de passage. Without being 
entirely cut oif from the rest of the chateau, the Petits Cabinets had 
only just enough communication as was required by the servants, 
and no one, not even members of the Royal Family, ever entered the 
sacred precincts, except by invitation of the King. 

1 See the plan in M. de Nolhac's Le Chateau de Versailles sous 
Louis XV. 

127 



MADAME DU BARRY 

"Monsieur, — The Royal Family are impatiently de- 
manding various arrangements which have been submitted 
by me to his Majesty and commanded by him. Madame 
la Comtesse du Barry has demanded new baths in her 
apartment, which his Majesty has likewise commanded, 
and the work will cost 1 5,000 livres. I have not a single 
sol wherewith to carry out his Majesty's wishes. I again 
implore you to place me in a position to do so.'* 

Madame du Barry's installation in these apartments 
marks a new step in her triumphant career. So striking a 
mark of the royal favour as the conferment of a lodging 
in the Petits Cabinets, the very apartments, too, which 
had formerly been occupied by the second lady in the land, 
was not likely to be ignored, and many of those who had 
hitherto held aloof from the mistress now deemed it 
incumbent upon them to pay their court to her. "I 
remarked," writes the Due de Croy, " that little by little 
people went more and more to visit the countess. She 
was established in a lodging in the Cabinets, the same in 
which Madame la Dauphine died. From all this she 
derived the advantage of being generally acknowledged as 
a lady of the Court ; she went to all the fites pell-mell 
with the others ; people gradually became accustomed 
to it." 1 

In the face of these renewed proofs of the King's in- 
fatuation, before the association of d'Aiguillon, Maupeon 
and Terray, the defection of men whom he had always 
believed devoted to his interests, and of high-born dames 
who, he perceived, were only awaiting a favourable oppor- 

1 Memoires inedits du Due de Croy, Bibliotheque de l'lnstitut, cited by 
M. de Nolhac. 

128 



MADAME DU BARRY 

tunity to follow the example of the Marechale de Mire- 
poix and the Comtesse de Valentinois, and openly take 
part with the favourite, Choiseul began to be seriously 
alarmed and to find, as he confided to Dumouriez, that 
" the jade was occasioning him considerable embarrass- 
ment." 1 However, he consoled himself with the reflection 
that with the arrival of the Dauphiness-elect, the Arch- 
duchess Marie Antoinette, everything would be changed. 
A young princess, accustomed at her mother's Court to 
hear the name of the Due de Choiseul mentioned with 
esteem and affection as the firm friend of Austria and 
the negotiator of her own marriage, would not hesitate 
to accord him all the support in her power. And this 
support would be no mean factor in the situation. 
Beautiful and fascinating as she was reported to be, she 
could hardly fail to obtain influence over a monarch so 
susceptible to feminine charms as Louis XV., who, for 
very shame's sake, must hesitate to flaunt before the eyes 
of a young girl brought up amid virtuous surroundings 
his low-born mistress. The result would be that decorum 
would once more reign at Court ; Madame du Barry 
would be relegated to the background ; the cabal which 
had formed around her would be powerless to harm him, 
and he would be able to crush his enemies at his leisure. 

Thus Choiseul reasoned, but, unhappily for himself, he 
underrated, as he had from the very first, the strength 
and permanency of Louis's senile passion, and failed to 
perceive that the friendship and support of a princess, who, 
while able to annoy, might be powerless to injure the lady 
whom the King delighted to honour, would be a broken 
reed indeed. 

1 La Vie et tes Memoires du General Dumouriez (edit. Berville and 
Barriere), i. 143. 

129 I 



MADAME DU BARRY 

Marie Antoinette arrived at Strasburg on May 7 ; on 
the 14th, she was met by Louis XV., the Dauphin, 
and Mesdames, at the Pont de Berne, in the Forest 
of Compiegne, and conducted to Versailles, where the 
marriage was immediately celebrated. 

On the evening before the ceremony, a supper, at which 
the whole of the Royal Family and a few of the most 
favoured courtiers were present, was given at the Chateau 
of La Muette, where the royal party had broken their 
journey, upon which occasion the King presented the 
young princess, amongst other jewels, with the famous 
pearl necklace threaded on a single string, which had 
been brought to France by Anne of Austria, and 
bequeathed by her to future queens and dauphinesses. 1 

Another incident connected with the banquet was of a 
less pleasing nature, for Louis XV. had the unpardonably 
bad taste to invite Madame du Barry, although up to the 
present he had never yet ventured to introduce his mistress 
to the same table as the Royal Family. 

The Austrian Ambassador, Mercy-Argenteau, who had 
been commissioned by his " Sacred Majesty, 7 ' as he styles 
Maria Theresa, to report to her the minutest details 
concerning her daughter, could scarcely believe the 
evidence of his eyes. " It appears inconceivable," he 
writes, " that the King should choose this moment to 
accord to the favourite an honour which has been refused 
her up to the present." 2 

" What is the Comtesse du Barry's function at Court ? " 

1 The smallest of the pearls composing this necklace was said to be as 
large as a filbert. Magnificent though they were, however, they were 
surpassed, according to Mademoiselle de Montpensier, by the pearls of 
the Marechale de l'Hopital, which k Grand Monargue purchased and 
presented to Madame de Montespan. 

2 Mercy to Kaunitz, May 17, 1770. 

130 



MADAME DU BARRY 

inquired Marie Antoinette, observing with surprise the 
attentions which the infatuated monarch lavished upon 
the favourite. 

" To amuse the King," was the diplomatic answer of 
the courtier addressed. 

" Then," rejoined the young girl, with all the candour 
of her fifteen years, " I intend to be her rival." 

"A rivalry indeed ensued," remarks M. de Nolhac, 
" very different from the one she imagined, between 
innocence and vice, a contest secret at first, but soon 
apparent, and affecting the highest political interests." 1 

Beautiful, joyous, and affectionate, eager to please, 
grateful for every attention, Marie Antoinette speedily 
won golden opinions from Louis XV., who, we feel bound 
to observe, appears to have treated her with a kindness 
which might well have merited more consideration for his 
domestic tranquillity than the princess afterwards exhibited. 
With Madame du Barry, too, contrary to the general 
impression which seems to prevail, nothing occurred 
during the first few weeks to presage the storm which was 
ere long to arise and defy all the efforts of Louis XV., 
Mercy, and Maria Theresa to calm. The Dauphiness, 
though speedily made aware of the true nature of the 
mysterious function of " amusing " the King, remained 
for some time in ignorance of the favourite's humble 
origin and eventful past ; and, acting on the advice of the 
sage Mercy and her reader, the Abbe de Vermond, made 
no distinction between Madame du Barry and other ladies 
of the Court ; that is to say, she treated her with courtesy 
on the occasions on which they happened to meet at the 
card-table or elsewhere. The favourite, on her side, 

1 Marie Antoinette et Madame du Barry, Revue des Deux Mondej, 
May 1896. 

131 



MADAME DU BARRY 

" who knew how to put on decorum with le grand habit" 
showed towards the Dauphiness an extreme deference 
bordering on servility, and was evidently prepared to go 
to any lengths to propitiate the new power. 

About the middle of June, Madame du Barry summoned 
up sufficient courage to make advances, and, accordingly, 
presented herself before the Dauphiness at her lever, upon 
which Mercy reports to Maria Theresa : 

tl Madame du Barry believed it incumbent upon her to 
pay her court one morning to her Royal Highness ; that 
princess received her without affectation ; the latter con- 
ducted herself with dignity and in a manner that could 
give offence to no one." 1 

To be received " without affectation " was, probably, 
quite as much as the favourite felt that she had the right 
to expect, and in the freedom of her apartments she lisped 
to the delighted King, like his mistress grateful for small 
mercies, her opinion that " cette petite rousse itait sarmantey 

Matters continued thus till the early part of July, when 
an unfortunate incident came to mar the harmony of 
Versailles, if harmony could ever be said to exist in a 
Court which was without its equal in Europe as a 
forcing-house for envy, hatred, malice, and all un- 
charitableness. 

It happened that the Dauphin had for governor a 
certain Due de la Vauguyon, of whom we have had 
occasion to speak in an earlier chapter, a despicable old 
intriguer, who passed for a divot, and was in the habit of 
listening at keyholes and suchlike places, in the hope of 
gleaning information which might further his designs. 2 

1 Letter of June 15, 1770. 

2 " A singular incident happened the other day. I was alone with 
my husband when M. de la Vauguyon stealthily approached the door, 

132 



MADAME DU BARRY 

Through hatred of Choiseul, he had espoused the cause of 
Madame du Barry, and, for a similar reason, had viewed 
with strong disapprobation the Austrian marriage, which 
had been the work of his enemy. Being powerless to 
prevent it, he now sought to render it as unhappy as 
possible, in order that he might retain his hitherto un- 
bounded influence over the mind of his pupil and complete 
his task of embittering him against Choiseul. 1 

In pursuance of this amiable resolution, he, through his 
son, the Due de Saint-Megrin, persuaded Madame du 
Barry to obtain the King's consent to the Dauphin's in- 
clusion in certain supper-parties which Louis was in the 
habit of giving to his intimate friends at Saint-Hubert, a 
hunting-lodge situated between the forests of Rambouillet 
and Saint-Leger, and at which, says Mercy, " decorum 
was not always scrupulously observed." 2 By this means 
the duke, apparently, hoped to bring about a rapproche- 
ment between the Dauphin and Madame du Barry — he 
had been at great pains to conceal the lady's past from his 
pupil — and, at the same time, cause dissension between 
the young prince and Marie Antoinette, who, he was 
aware, had conceived a strong aversion to the favourite, 
though she had hitherto contrived to keep her feelings 
under control. 

in order to listen. A valet-de-chamhre, who is either a fool or a very 
honest man, opened it, and M. de la Vauguyon, not having time to 
withdraw, was found posted there like a sentinel." — Marie Antoinette to 
Maria Theresa, July 9, 1770. 

1 Some writers allege that La Vauguyon went so far as to endeavour 
to persuade the young prince that Choiseul had caused his father and 
mother, the late Dauphin and Dauphiness, to be poisoned, but dull- 
witted as the future Louis XVI. undoubtedly was, it is difficult to 
believe that any one could have supposed him capable of crediting so 
monstrous a charge. 2 Mercy to Maria Theresa, July 14, 1770. 

133 



MADAME DU BARRY 

The Dauphin attended one of the suppers, where he 
was not a little astonished at the levity which prevailed, 
and particularly at the freedom with which Madame du 
Barry treated his august grandfather. However, as he 
was an exceedingly timid and reserved youth — though he 
had been married nearly two months, he had not yet 
ventured to claim his conjugal privileges — it is probable 
that he would have kept his opinion of such proceedings 
to himself, had not Mesdames, alarmed at the danger 
which threatened the innocence of their nephew, taken 
upon themselves to give him a little history of the 
favourite, not forgetting a few of the most striking episodes 
in her life ; and this information made such an impression 
upon the mind of the Dauphin that from that moment " he 
bestowed upon the Comtesse du Barry frequent marks of 
his aversion." 1 

Nor was this all ; for, in a conversation with Marie 
Antoinette on July 8, in the course of which he solemnly 
announced to the blushing princess his intention, during 
the approaching visit of the Court to Compiegne, to live 
with her "dans toute Fitendue de VintimiU qui comporte leur 
union" 2 the name of Madame du Barry happened to be 
mentioned, upon which the Dauphin repeated to his wife 
all that his aunts had told him concerning that lady. 

1 Mercy to Maria Theresa, July 14, 1770. 

2 But he did not carry out his resolution. On January 3, 1774 — 
three and a half years later — Maria Theresa wrote to Mercy : " The 
coldness of the Dauphin, a young husband of twenty years of age, 
towards a pretty wife is more than I can conceive. In spite of all the 
assertions of the faculty, my suspicions increase as to the physical 
constitution of the prince, and I have little to count upon but the good 
offices of the Emperor, who, on his arrival at Versailles, will perhaps 
find means to compel this indolent husband to acquit himself better of 
his duty," 

*34 



MADAME DU BARRY 

The day after this conversation we find the Dauphiness 
writing to Maria Theresa as follows : 

" The King has shown me a thousand kindnesses, and 
I love him tenderly ; but it is pitiable to see his infatua- 
tion for Madame du Barry, who is the most foolish 
and impertinent creature imaginable. She played every 
evening with us at Marly, and on two or three occasions 
found herself at my side ; but she did not address me, 
neither did I attempt to enter into conversation with her ; 
but, when obliged, I have spoken to her." 

And three days later : 

" I have forgotten to tell you that I wrote yesterday to 
the King ; I was very frightened, being aware that 
Madame du Barry reads everything. But you may be 
persuaded, my dear mother, that I shall commit no 
mistake either for or against her." 

But the influences at work around her were too strong 
to permit of the little Dauphiness carrying out this 
diplomatic resolution. Apart from the Dauphin, who 
was still only a boy, and too shy and reserved to invite 
her confidence, Marie Antoinette had no one to whom she 
could turn for guidance amid the shoals and quicksands of 
the Court. Her dame d 'honneur, the Comtesse de Noailles, 
possessed the rare merit of not being an intriguer, but she 
carried flattery to lengths which irritated the Dauphiness, 
and, besides, was but little qualified to give advice, save on 
matters of Court ceremonial, her devotion to which pro- 
cured her from her young mistress the name of " Madame 
V Etiquette " ; while none of the other ladies of her House- 
hold possessed any particular attraction for the princess, 
which was scarcely surprising, as the majority were indebted 
for their positions to La Vauguyon or the favourite. 1 
1 M. de Nolhac's Marie Antoinette, Daupkine, p. 142, 
'35 



MADAME DU BARRY 

In her isolation, the young girl turned towards her 
aunts, the three Mesdames — the fourth, Madame Louise, 
had, a few months before, succeeded in wresting from 
Louis XV. a reluctant permission to enter the Carmelites 
of Saint-Denis — whose friendship Maria Theresa, aware of 
the reputation of these princesses for piety and virtue, but 
not, unfortunately, of their predilection for petty intrigue, 
had advised her to cultivate. 

Mesdames were enchanted to find their niece so ready 
to seek their society and accept their guidance. They 
received her with open arms, gave her the key to a private 
door leading to Madame Adelaide's apartments, in which 
the sisters were in the habit of holding their little Court, 
so that she might come thither unattended and at any 
hour she pleased, racked their brains to devise new 
means of amusing her, and caressed and flattered her to 
the top of her bent. From thence to obtain influence 
over her mind, to imbue her with their own prejudices, to 
dictate to her the attitude she should assume towards the 
different members of the Court, was but a step. " The 
insinuations of the old princesses, falling incessantly on 
the mind of the young girl," says M. de la Rocheterie, 
" ended by making an impression upon it, however strong 
the protest of her good sense, as the continual dropping of 
water ends by wearing away even the hardest rock. This 
deplorable ascendency extended itself over everything, 
mingled with everything, touched everything." 1 

Mesdames hated Madame du Barry and all her sup- 
porters, though a wholesome dread of their royal father's 
anger prevented them from showing their antipathy in too 
marked a manner. But the frank, impetuous little Dau- 
phiness was quite incapable of dissimulating her dislike, 
1 Hist aire de Marie Antoinette, i. 91. 
136 



MADAME DU BARRY 

and the princesses meanly " incited her to a resentment 
which they dared not exhibit themselves." So long, how- 
ever, as the Court was at Compiegne occasions of peril 
were rare ; Marie Antoinette did not see Madame du 
Barry, except at a distance, at Mass, the chase, or the grand 
convert, and had, therefore, no opportunity of testifying 
the aversion and contempt which she now entertained for 
the favourite. On the other hand, the Due de la Vauguyon 
and his confederate, Madame de Marsan, the gouvernanle 
of the Dauphin's sisters, Clotilde and Elisabeth, who came 
every day to pay their court to the Dauphiness, found 
themselves treated with a coldness which excited general 
remark and showed the Du Barry party that they had now 
to reckon with a new adversary. 

Towards the end of July, the Court paid a short visit to 
Choisy, and it was while there that a false move on the 
part of Madame du Barry, which directly touched the 
Dauphiness, greatly accentuated Marie Antoinette's dislike 
of the favourite and ruined any slight chance that might 
have remained to the latter of eventually overcoming the 
hostility of the princess. 

To amuse the Dauphiness, the King gave orders for 
some comedies to be performed in the theatre of the 
chateau. This theatre was a very small one, and could 
with difficulty accommodate the various members of the 
Royal Family and their respective suites, and one evening 
it happened that Madame du Barry, arriving late with her 
two inseparables, the Marechale de Mirepoix and the 
Comtesse de Valentinois, found all the front seats occu- 
pied by the dames du palais of the Dauphiness. They re- 
quested them to make way, but the dames declined, and 
a war of words ensued, wherein one of Marie Antoinette's 
ladies, the Comtesse de Gramont, who is described by 

»37 



MADAME DU BARRY 

Madame du Deffand as " foolish, impudent, and talkative," 
greatly distinguished herself. Some of the shafts she dis- 
charged would appear to have been very keenly barbed 
and to have found their mark ; any way, next morning 
Madame du Barry, instead of allowing the affair to rest, 
as policy should certainly have dictated, having regard to 
the official position of the delinquent, complained to the 
King, who promptly exiled the Comtesse de Gramont 
fifteen leagues from the Court. 

This incident created an immense sensation. The 
Comtesse de Gramont was the sister-in-law of the duchess 
of that name, and a leading light of the Choiseul party, 
which was highly incensed at the exile of one of its mem- 
bers, and besought the Dauphiness to intercede for her 
with the King. This Marie Antoinette, who was herself 
very indignant, promised to do ; but Mercy intervened, 
and, on his advice, she confined herself to expressing her 
regret that punishment should have been inflicted on one 
of her ladies without any official notification having been 
made to her, as etiquette demanded. Louis XV., though 
perfectly well aware that it was the punishment, and not 
the breach of etiquette, that was being made the subject of 
protest, was much relieved at escaping so easily from an 
awkward position, laid the blame on the negligence of 
his Commandeur des Ordres, promised that it should not 
occur again, and made many affectionate speeches to the 
Dauphiness. 

Three months later, while the Court was at Fontaine- 
bleau, the exiled dame du palais wrote to her mistress, 
informing her that she was ill and urgently in need of the 
best medical advice, and begging her to obtain the King's 
permission for her to come to Paris. There was in all 
probability nothing more serious the matter with the 

138 



MADAME DU BARRY 

countess than the malady from which all ladies excluded 
for a season from the delights of Versailles and the capital 
suffered, to wit, ennui. But the kind heart of Marie 
Antoinette was touched, and after a dinner au grand 
couvert y at which all the Royal Family were present, she 
took the opportunity of soliciting the return of the exile 
" in a manner full of grace and sweetness." 

The King demurred, and hinted that it would be as 
well if Madame du Barry's pardon were obtained. The 
Dauphiness exclaimed : " Think what a grief it would be 
to me, papa, if a lady attached to my service were to die 
in your disgrace ! " But she did not act upon the hint, 
in consequence of which, according to Mercy, Madame 
du Barry " showed at first some inclination to oppose the 
desire of Madame la Dauphine." Finally, a courier 
having been despatched to obtain a certificate of ill-health 
from the complaisant medical adviser of the Comtesse de 
Gramont, that lady was permitted to reside in Paris, but 
no further concession was made, and the Court remained 
forbidden ground. 

Whether the King's refusal to pardon the countess was 
due to the influence of Madame du Barry is very doubtful. 
Vindictiveness was so entirely alien to the favourite's 
character, and it was so obviously to her interests to 
endeavour to conciliate the Dauphiness, that we are 
inclined to think that she offered no opposition to the 
lady's return to Court, and may even, contrary to Mercy's 
assertion, have seconded the solicitations of the princess ; 
but that Louis XV., having determined to make an 
example, was not to be turned from his purpose. How- 
ever that may be, it is certain that Marie Antoinette, 
whose pride was deeply wounded by what she chose to 
regard as a personal affront, never forgave Madame du 

i39 



MADAME DU BARRY 

Barry her share in the affair, and henceforth treated her 
with the utmost disdain, and tacitly encouraged her 
entourage to do likewise, to the intense chagrin of the 
favourite and the annoyance of the King. 

On the other hand, the Dauphiness lost no opportunity 
of bestowing marks of her favour upon Choiseul, his wife 
and sister. In so doing, of course, she was only acting in 
accordance with the instructions of Maria Theresa, who 
had charged her daughter never to forget that Choiseul 
had been the negotiator of her marriage, and that she 
owed her proud position entirely to him. But, as matters 
stood, the result was most unfortunate for the duke ; for 
Madame du Barry and her friends had little difficulty in 
persuading the King that the attitude adopted by Marie 
Antoinette towards the favourite was directly attributable 
to the influence of the Choiseuls ; and as the Dauphiness's 
favour declined, that of the Minister declined also. 



140 



CHAPTER XI 

Trial of the Due d'Aiguillon before the Parliament of Paris — 
Madame du Barry urges the King to put a stop to the proceed- 
ings — The proceedings annulled — Decree of the Parliament 
against d'Aiguillon — Violent quarrel between the King and 
the magistrates — Coup diktat of September 3, 1770 — Attitude 
of Choiseul — Indiscretion of Madame de Gramont — The 
Falkland Islands — Obstinacy of Spain, relying on the support 
of France — Choiseul determined to provoke a war, in order to 
preserve his own ascendency — Louis XV. resolved to maintain 
peace — Critical situation — Duplicity of Choiseul — Resumption 
of the quarrel between the King and the Parliament — The 
judges suspend their functions — Efforts of the favourite and 
her allies to induce Louis XV. to dismiss Choiseul — In- 
decision of the King — Intervention of the Prince de Cond£ — 
Episode of the Abbe de la Ville — " Monsieur, je ne voulais 
point la guerre ! " — Disgrace of Choiseul — Popular sympathy for 
the fallen Minister — Extraordinary scenes in Paris — Louis XV. 
compelled to permit the Court to visit Chanteloup. 

But, in the meanwhile, events of far more importance 
than the relations between a Dauphiness and a favourite, 
at least in the eyes of all save the most contemptible of 
palace intriguers, had arisen to occupy public attention. 

The indignation of the Bretons against d'Aiguillon had 
been very far from appeased by the restoration of their 
Parliament and the recall of the duke. They had not 
ceased to demand justice upon their late governor, whom, 
besides the grievances relative to his administration, they 
accused of suborning witnesses to assist in the conviction 

141 



MADAME DU BARRY 

of La Chalotais and others ; and at length d'Aiguillon 
found himself compelled to request the King to allow him 
to be brought to trial, in order that he might have an 
opportunity of refuting the charges against him. Formal 
proceedings were accordingly commenced before the 
Parliament of Paris (April 14, 1770), Louis himself pre- 
siding at the opening sitting and " comporting himself like 
a kind father in the midst of beloved children." 1 Before, 
however, the trial had been in progress very long, it 
became evident that the judges were animated by no 
friendly feelings towards the duke, and determined to 
submit his conduct in Brittany to the most searching 
investigation. D'Aiguillon began to be seriously alarmed 
(" The best reasons," he wrote to his friend, the Chevalier 
de Balleroy, " have difficulty in overcoming prejudice, 
partiality and intrigue "), and to see before him a 
humiliating sentence and possibly severe punishment, for 
*here can be very little doubt that the charges against him 
were in the main but too well justified, though, according 
to his apologist, M. Marcel Marion, 2 many of the wit- 
nesses for the prosecution perjured themselves in the most 
shameful manner. 

It was now that d'Aiguillon reaped the reward of his 
foresight in securing the friendship of one who had the 
ear of the King. Whether, as contemporary gossip 
alleges, Madame du Barry had become the mistress of the 
duke is, to say the least, doubtful — it would seem indeed 
to rest on no better evidence than the charge that Madame 
de Pompadour was the mistress of Choiseul — but, at the 
same time, there can be no question that the favourite was 

1 Hardy's "Journal des ivenements qrfils •parviennent a ma connaissance. 

2 La Bretagne et le Due d'Aiguillon, 175 3- 1770, par M. Marcel 
Marion (Paris, 1898). 

142 



MADAME DU BARRY 

sincerely attached to d'Aiguillon, and, as soon as she 
understood the danger which threatened him, exerted all 
her influence to induce the King to put a stop to the 
trial. 

Her task was not a difficult one. The feeling of 
absolute authority was, as we have already observed, as 
strong in Louis XV. as his predecessor, and he had from 
the first regarded with disfavour an investigation into the 
conduct of a person who had been the representative of 
royalty in Brittany and might well plead the orders of the 
King for many of the acts which had aroused so much 
indignation in that province. Moreover, it is highly 
probable that Maupeou, who perceived in an interference 
with the course of the trial an excellent opportunity for a 
great quarrel with the Parliament, supported by his 
counsels the solicitations of Madame du Barry, and thus 
removed any lingering scruples which the King might still 
have entertained about perpetrating so scandalous an abuse 
of his power. 

Accordingly, on July 27, 1770, a Bed of Justice was 
held at Versailles, and the Parliament informed that a pro- 
secution which tended to submit to its inspection the 
secrecy of the King's administration, the execution of his 
orders, and the personal use of his authority, could not 
be allowed to continue, declared the conduct both of 
d'Aiguillon and of the Breton magistrates whom he had 
persecuted " irreproachable," annulled the proceedings, 
and imposed the most absolute silence on all concerned. 1 

It would have been difficult to show more utter disregard 
for all judicial forms. " It seemed," says an indignant con- 
temporary writer, a that the King had been induced to 
give the greatest dclat to this assembly, merely that it 

1 Martin's Histoire de France jusqu'en 1789, xvi. 279. 
143 



MADAME DU BARRY 

might more absolutely become the object of the derision 
of France and of all Europe. He was perhaps the only 
person in his kingdom who was not ashamed of it. That 
very evening he invited the Due d'Aiguillon to be of the 
party to Marly, 1 and admitted him to the honour of 
supping with him. 2 

The Parliament returned from the Bed of Justice 
"transported with rage," and, on July 2, threw down 
the gauntlet to royal absolutism and fulminated a decree 
setting forth that the proceedings on which the King had 
seen fit to impose his veto contained " the basis of grave 
proofs compromising the honour of the Due d'Aiguillon," 
whom they, in consequence, declared incapable of exercising 
any functions belonging to the peerage until he had purged 
himself therefrom by due process of law. 

The Council quashed the decree of the Parliament. 
The Parliament, after fruitless remonstrances, decreed 
anew that the prosecution could not be considered termi- 
nated by an arbitrary act of absolute authority, and were, 
as usual, supported by the provincial courts. The Parlia- 
ments of Rennes and Bordeaux were particularly violent. 
The former ordered two memorials in favour of d'Aiguil- 
lon to be burned by the public executioner, refused to 

1 Only a small portion of the Court accompanied the King on his 
visits to Marly, and Louis XV. always nominated those whom he 
desired should be of the party. 

2 Vie privie de Louis XV., vol. iv. p. 141. As we recently saw this 
book referred to in an English weekly review as if it were a mere 
chronique scandaleuse, we may here remark that such is very far from 
being the case. The title is, indeed, somewhat of a misnomer, as the 
work is far more concerned with the public than the private actions oi 
Louis XV., and is of no small value to the serious historian, if only for 
the admirable account it contains of the struggle between the King and 
the Parliaments. 

144 



MADAME DU BARRY 

register the royal edict of June 27, and sent energetic 
remonstrances to the Chancellor. The latter forbade the 
inhabitants of the duchy of Aiguillon to bring their 
appeals before it, thus confirming the decree of the Par- 
liament of Paris depriving the duke of his privileges. 
The King replied by compelling the Parliament of Rennes 
to register the obnoxious edict by force, caused two of its 
members, both noblemen, to be arrested and imprisoned 
at Compiegne, and threw Dupaty, the attorney-general of 
the Parliament of Bordeaux, into a gloomy dungeon in the 
Chateau of Pierre-Encise, at the gates of Lyons, from 
which, however, he was presently released, through the 
mediation of Madame du Barry. 1 

Urged on by Maupeou, who had persuaded him to 
regard the union between the Parliaments as a criminal 
confederation directed against his royal authority, and by 
the favourite, " who felt herself personally affected " by 
the decree which pronounced the honour of her protegi 
compromised, Louis XV. now determined on a coup cTEtat 
to bring the insolent judges to reason. At a meeting of 
the Council on the evening of September 2, he announced 
his intention of holding a Bed of Justice on the following 
day, not at Versailles, but in Paris, at the Palais de Justice ; 
and early next morning the Parisians were astonished to 
hear the sound of cannon and to see the King, who seldom 
visited his capital, drive into the Place Louis XV., escorted 
by four companies of musketeers, and enter the Palais, 
accompanied by the Chancellor in his robes of office. 2 

1 Martin's Histolre de France jusqu'en 1789, xvi. 280. Vatel's 
Histoire de Madame du Barry, i. 424. Flammermont's Le Chancelier 
Maupeou et let Parlements, p. 87, et seq. 

2 Letter of Madame du Deffand to Horace Walpole, September 3, 
1770. 

H5 K 



MADAME DU BARRY 

The monarch entered the Salle des Seances, where the 
members of the Parliament were assembled, took his seat, 
and having, through the mouth of Maupeou, upbraided 
them with their insubordinate conduct in the most 
unmeasured terms, caused all the documents connected 
with the prosecution of d'Aiguillon to be handed over to 
him, ordered the decrees and resolutions against the duke 
to be effaced from the registers, and forbade the Parlia- 
ment ever to reopen the affair on any pretext whatsoever. 

The magistrates appear to have been too thunderstruck 
by this unwonted display of energy, on the part of a 
sovereign whose feebleness had become a byword, to 
have taken any steps for three days, when they met and 
passed a resolution accusing the King of " a premeditated 
plan to change the form of government, and to substitute 
for the equable force of laws the irregular concussions of 
arbitrary power " ; after which they adjourned for the 
autumn vacation, and for three months there was peace. 

When, on September 2, Louis XV. had announced to 
the Council his intention to hold a bed of justice on the 
following day, Choiseul, shrewdly suspecting what was in 
the air, had begged the King to excuse him from attend- 
ing, on the plea that he had arranged to start that evening 
for La Ferte-Vidame, to pay a long-promised visit to La 
Borde, the Court banker ; indeed, from the very com- 
mencement of the prosecution of d'Aiguillon the Minister 
had maintained an attitude of the strictest neutrality. 
There can be no question that his sympathies were 
entirely with the Parliaments, and almost equally certain 
that he had encouraged the Breton magistrates at first to 
resist and afterwards to attack the duke. But he was 
too keen-sighted to imagine that there was much hope of 

146 



MADAME DU BARRY 

the Parliaments compelling the King to yield, spurred on 
as Louis was by the favourite, incited, in her turn, by her 
reputed lover, d'Aiguillon. 

Madame du Barry and her allies, however, were deter- 
mined to prevent their adversary from deriving any advan- 
tage from this policy of self-effacement, and did not 
scruple to charge him with concealing his hand and 
secretly sustaining the magistrates in their resistance ; and, 
unfortunately for the Minister, an act of extraordinary 
indiscretion on the part of his evil genius, Madame 
de Gramont, lent but too much colour to these accu- 
sations. 

On August 20, Mercy reports to Maria Theresa that 
" the Due de Choiseul had had a violent altercation with 
the Due de Richelieu, owing to the latter having declared 
that the Duchesse de Gramont, while passing through 
Provence and Languedoc, on her way to the waters of 
Bareges, had sought to stir up the Parliaments of those 
provinces against the decisions of the Court in the affair 
of the Due d'Aiguillon." 

It is probable, as M. Flammermont observes, that this 
was a calumny, and that Madame de Gramont had con- 
fined herself to stating her own opinions on the matter 
which the whole kingdom was discussing. The duchess 
was not the woman to mince her words where her suc- 
cessful rival and her brother's most bitter enemy were 
concerned, but that did not prove that she was the 
mouthpiece of a conspiracy organised by Choiseul. 1 Never- 
theless, the incident was not without its effect upon the 
King, who from that moment treated the Minister with 
marked coldness, and, though he continued to transact 
business with him and invite him to his supper-parties, did 

1 M. Flammermont's Le Chancelier Maupeou et les Par/ements, p. 101. 

H7 



MADAME DU BARRY 

not honour him with a single word of kindness or 
confidence. 1 

In point of fact, Choiseul at this period had far too 
much on his hands to spend his time in encouraging the 
Parliaments to resist the King by decrees and remon- 
strances. He was meditating a stroke whereby he 
intended to rid himself of his enemies and render his 
services indispensable to his royal master. 

In 1766, a small English settlement, which received the 
name of Port Egmont, after the Earl of Egmont, First 
Lord of the Admiralty, had been established on one of the 
Falkland Islands, a group the importance of which was 
then greatly overestimated. It was far from a valuable 
possession, but Spain, which still asserted a nominal 
supremacy over a large portion of the South Seas, took 
umbrage, and, without making any formal complaint to 
the English Government, in June 1770 the Governor of 
Buenos Ayres, Don Francesco Buccarelli, despatched an 
armament, which compelled the little garrison to surrender 
and carried them away prisoners. 

When the news of this high-handed proceeding reached 
London, the English Government sent orders to its 
representative at Madrid to demand in peremptory terms 
the restitution of the Falkland Islands and the disavowal 
of Buccarelli's action, and, in view of a possible refusal, 
active preparations were made for war. 2 

Spain was in no condition to go to war, and, unsup- 
ported, would probably have shrunk from so unequal a 
struggle. But, by the terms of the Family Compact of 

1 Vie privee de Louis XV., iv. 146. 

2 Stanhope's " History of England from the Peace of Utrecht," v. 
416, et seq. 

148 



MADAME DU BARRY 

1 76 1, France was bound to come to her aid, with men 
and ships, against any Power with which she might be- 
come involved in hostilities ; and, relying on the support 
of his ally, Carlos III. declined to grant the full measure 
of reparation that England claimed, and intimated very 
plainly that he was prepared to abide by the consequences. 

Everything now depended upon France, for Grimaldi, 
the Spanish Prime Minister, who governed his master, 
was devoted to French interests, and might be relied upon 
to act in accordance with the wishes of the Cabinet of 
Versailles. 1 If France were unwilling to go to war and 
advised conciliation, Spain would undoubtedly comply 
with England's demands ; if, on the other hand, she 
counselled resistance, hostilities must as certainly follow. 

The conduct of Choiseul at this juncture has been the 
subject of much discussion, and with good reason, since it 
varied with the changes in the political situation in France. 
M. Gaston Maugras, his latest biographer, asserts that the 
Minister's despatches prove beyond a doubt that he was 
sincerely desirous of preserving the peace. 2 This may be 
true in regard to the later despatches, though even in 
some of these there is a ring of insincerity ; but the earlier 
ones, and particularly those written in the summer of 1770, 
are distinctly belligerent in tone and, in our judgment, 
there can be no question that Choiseul both desired war 
and did his utmost to bring it about. 

That such should have been the case is scarcely a 

1 " His (Grimaldi's) doctrine is absolutely French ; guided in every- 
thing by the French closet, he ever has the French interest in view, and 
considers Spain in a secondary light. I do not accuse him of being a false 
servant, as I really think he considers such a system most salutary for the 
master he serves ; at least he has caused him to adopt it." — " Diaries 
and Correspondence of James Harris, first Earl of Malmesbury," i. 56. 

2 Le Due et la Ducbesse de Choiseul. 

149 



MADAME DU BARRY 

matter for surprise, when we consider that however 
disastrous such a conflict might have been to France, it 
would undoubtedly have been to the personal advantage 
of the Minister. D'Aiguillon, Maupeou, and Terray, 
aided by Madame du Barry, were working assiduously to 
effect his downfall and, he had grave reason to believe, 
were already within measurable distance of attaining their 
object. But, in the event of war, their machinations would 
be completely checkmated ; nay more, they would recoil 
upon their own heads, for then Choiseul, who was familiar 
with the condition and needs of both army and navy, 
who possessed the confidence of the Courts of Madrid 
and Vienna, and could count upon the support of the 
magistracy, would become an indispensable man ; while 
his rivals, whose intrigues had exasperated the Parliament 
and enhanced the difficulty of obtaining its consent to the 
fresh taxation which hostilities would render necessary, 
would be sent about their business. 1 " I have no reason 
to doubt," wrote Mercy, " that the Due de Choiseul 
believed that war would strengthen his position and render 
his services necessary." 2 

But if Choiseul desired war, it was far otherwise with 
his master. Whatever his faults may have been, Louis XV. 
was not lacking in intelligence, and to enter upon another 
conflict while France was still suffering from the exhaustion 
produced by the last, over a mere question of etiquette in 
which she had not the smallest interest, appeared to him, 
as indeed it was, the height of insanity. Moreover, war 
would mean the triumph of the Parliament and the sacri- 
fice of the Chancellor and the Comptroller-General, and 
probably d'Aiguillon as well, to its resentment, for the 

1 Mr. J. B. Perkins' " France under Louis XV.," ii. 247. 

2 Mercy to Maria Theresa, September 19, 1770. 

150 



MADAMjE DU BARRY 

Parliament would then be in a position to dictate terms to 
the King, and there could be little doubt what those terms 
would be. Nothing, Louis determined, should induce him 
to submit to so great a humiliation, and he intimated his 
wishes to Choiseul in unmistakable terms. 

Choiseul had, of course, no option but to obey, and, 
accordingly, made some attempts to quench the flame 
which he had been so industriously fanning. But the 
belligerent tone of his earlier despatches had done their 
work but too well ; Spain, in the belief that France 
would support her, had been actively engaged in preparing 
for hostilities, the people were clamouring for war, and 
Grimaldi replied that, if he advised Carlos III. to accede 
to the English demands, he would be stoned by the 
populace. Little hope of a settlement now remained, and 
in October Choiseul asked the Council for 8,000,000 livres 
wherewith to prepare for the coming struggle. 1 

Some further weeks were wasted in fruitless negotiations, 
and, on December 3, Frances, the French Ambassador at 
St. James's, informed Choiseul that the English Govern- 
ment were at the end of their patience and that war was 
inevitable. The Minister thereupon adopted a course 
which, we venture to think, must entirely destroy any 
claim which he might otherwise have upon our sympathy. 
He took upon himself to send Prince Masserano, the 
Spanish Ambassador in London, contrary instructions to 
those given him by the King of Spain, and to beg him to 
present to the English Government sub spe rati a plan of 
accommodation. 2 At the same time, however, he wrote to 
Grimaldi at Madrid informing him of what he had done, 
and explaining that his object was "to silence the lying 

1 Mr. J. B. Perkins' " France under Louis XV.," ii. 249. 

2 Masserano did not dare to present this plan himself to the English 



MADAME DU BARRY 

tongues that represent to the King that I am stirring up 
war through personal ambition." 

" It is obvious," observes that well-informed and im- 
partial historian, M. Flammermont, " that Choiseul had 
presented this plan because he was almost certain that it 
would not be ratified by Spain, and that war was inevitable. 
He desired to prove his goodwill and to show that he 
was devoted to the cause of peace in order to silence his 
enemies, but at the bottom of his heart he desired war 
and was secretly prepared for it." 1 

Choiseul's enemies, indeed, were fully alive to the gravity 
of the situation as regarded themselves, and were putting 
forth every effort to crush the Minister ere he could con- 
trive to involve the country in war in order to crush 
them. Their designs were facilitated by the fact that the 
quarrel between the King and the Parliament of Paris had 
now reached an acute stage. At the opening of the winter 
session on December 3, an edict had been issued interdict- 
Government, but requested the French Ambassador to lay it before 
Lord North. Frances complied and writes to Choiseul : 

" Monseigneur, — The Prime Minister (Lord North) granted me a 
rendezvous on Thursday, to give me an answer in regard to the new 
plan. He had given a dinner to the lord Sandiwch (sic) ; the repast 
lasted a long time, and the guests were intoxicated with wine. At 
length, at nine o'clock in the evening, I found my lord North, who was 
as drunk as a hackney-coachman, while all the members of the British 
Council were as mellow {bien eonditionnes) as their chief. This circum- 
stance, in a little affair affecting the fate of three crowns, is not without 
interest." 

The Ambassador adds that Lord North, although so drunk, seemed 
to grasp every point that was put before him as easily as if he had been 
perfectly sober, " car ces messieurs conservent machinalement de la logique ei 
du raissonement dans V ivrognerie par V habitude qiHils en ont contractee." 

1 M. Flammermont's Le Chancelier Maupeou et ks Parkments,^. 175, 
et sea. 

152 



MADAME DU BARRY 

ing all joint action between the Parliament of Paris and 
the provincial Parliaments, and all opposition to the en- 
forcement of royal edicts, under pain of deprivation of 
office. This edict the judges indignantly refused to 
register ; indeed, to have done so would have been to 
admit themselves wholly in the wrong, and there can be 
no doubt that it had been framed by Maupeou with the 
deliberate intention of bringing matters to a crisis. After 
a bed of justice had been held at Versailles, where the 
angry magistrates were further exasperated by the sight of 
their enemy, d'Aiguillon, whom they had decreed sus- 
pended from the privileges of his rank, seated among the 
peers, and various futile remonstrances had been addressed 
to the King, the Parliament declared that " their profound 
affliction did not leave their minds sufficiently free to 
decide upon the fortunes, lives, and honour of the King's 
subjects," and closed the Law Courts. 1 

The cabal was not slow to profit by the turn which 
events had taken. Maupeou entreated the King to 
dismiss Choiseul, declaring that the disgrace of the duke 
would have the immediate effect of assuring peace abroad, 
by compelling Spain to accede to England's demands, and 
at home, by demonstrating to the Parliament that it could 
no longer reckon on the support of a powerful Minister, 
and on the embarrassments that a great war would occasion 
the Government. His arguments were supported by 
Terray, who felt that he would certainly be disgraced if 
Choiseul were not, by d'Aiguillon, who feared that the 
Parliament would resume its proceedings against him if 
Maupeou and Terray were exiled, and, finally, by Madame 
du Barry, " who loved the Due d'Aiguillon too tenderly 

1 Vie privee de Louis XV. , iv. 146. Martin's Histoire de France 
iusqu'en 1789, xv. 282. 

153 



MADAME DU BARRY 

to abandon him on this occasion." Choiseul, on his side, 
defended himself vigorously, and did not hesitate to carry 
the war into the enemy's camp, assuring the King that the 
wisest course to adopt in regard to the Parliament would 
be to conciliate it by the dismissal of the Chancellor and 
the Comptroller-General, in which event the judges would 
doubtless accept the recent edict, with certain indispensable 
modifications, and lend themselves to any fresh taxation 
which circumstances might render necessary. 

Louis XV. was at a loss what to do. On the one 
hand, he felt that Choiseul was the best of his Ministers, 
and that he would cover himself with odium by sacrificing 
to a low-born favourite and an unworthy cabal the man 
who had consolidated the Austrian alliance, negotiated 
the Family Compact, annexed Corsica to France, and re- 
established his armies and his fleet ; added to which he 
was ashamed to abandon his cousin, the King of Spain, at 
the moment when his concurrence was absolutely necessary. 
But he feared and hated the Parliament, from which he 
hoped Maupeou and Terray were about to deliver him, 
and, above all, he desired to have peace and quiet in his 
private life, and to put an end to the incessant complaints 
and solicitations of his mistress. 1 

While the King hesitated, events abroad were hastening 
to a crisis. Wearying of the obstinacy of Spain, the 
English Government sent orders to Harris 2 to leave 
Madrid, and if Choiseul had remained in office there can 

1 M. Flammermont's Le Chance&er Maupeou et les Parlements, p. 1 79. 

2 James Harris, afterwards first Earl of Malmesbury. He was at this 
time only twenty-four, but had already given promise of those great 
abilities which were to cause Talleyrand to observe : " Je crols que Lord 
Malmesbury etait le plus habile Ministre que vous aviez de son temps ; Seta-it 
inutile de le devancer ; il falloit de suivre de prhP 

154 



MADAME DU BARRY 

be little doubt that hostilities would have been commenced 
by England, and that France would have come to the 
assistance of her ally, under the terms of the Family 
Compact. 

The intervention of the Prince de Cond6 determined 
Louis to follow the counsels of the favourite and her 
supporters and dismiss Choiseul. During the visit to 
Compiegne, in the preceding summer, the cabal, appre- 
hensive that its attacks upon the chief Minister might 
be attributed by the King to motives of personal enmity 
and private ambition, had deemed it prudent to seek some 
ally whose high position placed him above such suspicions 
and who enjoyed the confidence of the monarch. They 
found these qualifications in Conde, who was badly dis- 
posed towards Choiseul, to whose influence he ascribed 
the fact that the hand of the wealthy Mademoiselle de 
Penthievre had been bestowed upon the Due de Chartres, 
instead of upon his own son, the Due de Bourbon, and, 
moreover, aspired to the command of the army, an 
aspiration which the Minister had not seen fit to 
encourage. 

Proposals of alliance were accordingly made to the 
prince, some writers say by Terray, who was chief of 
his council, others through the Princesse de Monaco, his 
mistress, who had been gained over to the interests of the 
cabal by Cromot, chief clerk of the Exchequer, a bitter 
enemy of Choiseul ; and Conde accepted the role that 
was offered him on three conditions : first, that the 
appointment of Choiseul's successor at the Ministry or 
War should rest with him ; secondly, that he should have 
the command of the army in the event of war ; and 
thirdly, that the post of Grand Master of the Artillery 
should be revived in his favour. 

iS5 



MADAME DU BARRY 

The prince conducted his manoeuvres with so much 
skill that up to the last moment Choiseul was unaware 
who was the principal agent of his ruin. On December 1 9, 
Conde came over from Chantilly and had an audience 
of the King, and as soon as he had succeeded in triumph- 
ing over the irresolution of the monarch and had obtained 
his promise that Choiseul should be dismissed, returned 
home. 

However, Louis still hesitated. To a person of his 
vacillating temperament, to make a resolution is one 
thing, to give effect to it is quite another, and though 
that same evening he wrote the lettre-de-cachet announcing 
his disgrace to Choiseul, he could not make up his mind 
to send it, and for three days carried it about in his 
pocket. 1 

The cabal was in the utmost alarm, for any day now 
might bring the news that England had declared war, in 
which event all its fine schemes would collapse like a 
house of cards. Then Maupeou burned his boats. Re- 
questing an audience of the King, he reiterated his convic- 
tion that Choiseul was deceiving him and secretly doing 
his utmost to plunge the country into war, which would 
necessitate the abandonment of the campaign against the 
Parliament and the sacrifice of himself and Terray to the 
resentment of the judges ; and begged his Majesty's leave 
to retire from office, instead of waiting to be dismissed. 2 
At the same time, Madame du Barry, prompted by 

1 According to the Vie privee de Louis XV. , the King had one 
evening, some little time before this, " when inflamed with love and 
heated with wine," written a lettre-de-cachet at the instance of the 
favourite ; but, on coming to his senses the following morning, had 
promptly destroyed it. 

2 M. Flammermont's Le Cbancelier Maupeou et les Parlements, p. 182. 

i 5 6 



MADAME DU BARRY 

d'Aiguillon, suggested to the King that he should send 
for and question the Abbe de la Ville, chief clerk of the 
Foreign Office, from whom he would be able to ascertain 
what were the real intentions of the Minister regarding 
the Anglo-Spanish quarrel. 

This Abb6 de la Ville had begun life as a Jesuit, and, 
though he had long since abandoned that Order, had not 
failed to profit by the lessons he had learned in his youth. 
He had a grudge against Choiseul, " who despised his 
advice, his experience, and his person," and was only too 
ready to betray him to any one who was in a position to 
remunerate his treachery. 

According to Besenval, when questioned by Louis XV. 
the abb£ replied that, as it was his chief's invariable practice 
to write even the most unimportant despatches with his own 
hand, he was unable to enlighten him as to the Minister's 
real intentions. But it would be very easy for his Majesty 
to ascertain. Let him send for M. de Choiseul and order 
him to draft a letter to the King of Spain which should 
declare to that prince that his Majesty was absolutely 
determined to maintain peace, and that no consideration 
would induce him to involve his kingdom in war. If, 
said he, the Minister obeyed without hesitation, it would 
be a proof that he was sincerely desirous for peace ; if, on 
the contrary, he raised objections, no one could doubt that 
he was working for war. 

" The plot," remarks the chronicler, " was adroitly 
woven, and could not fail to attain its object ; for it was 
easy to calculate that M. de Choiseul, who had just 
despatched a courier to Spain with proposals of accom- 
modation, would reply to the King that, before writing to 
that Court, it was necessary to await the answer to the 
last plan that he had sent to it ; that if it were accepted, 

*57 



MADAME DU BARRY 

the letter would be unnecessary ; if it were rejected, there 
would be still time to write." 1 

This incident, as related by Besenval, which is to be 
found in the works of the Goncourts, Carlyle, and 
other writers of authority, has been generally accepted, 
but it is doubtful whether the baron's version is the 
correct one. Recent research has revealed that many of 
the despatches of Choiseul preserved in the Spanish 
Archives are not in the handwriting of the Minister 
himself, but are only signed by him, 2 and we are, there- 
fore, of opinion that the Abbe de la Ville was cognisant of 
Choiseul's negotiations, and that what he really did was to 
communicate to Louis XV. the contents of his chief's last 
despatch to Grimaldi, written on December 19, in which, 
while mildly advising peace, Choiseul added these words ; 

" If you do not adopt this course (i.e., come to terms 
with England), it will be necessary to begin war at the 
same time, that is to say, towards the end of January ; and, 
in that event, you must advise me of the day on which 
you propose to seize the English vessels in your ports." 3 

However that may be, Louis XV. determined to have a 
final explanation with Choiseul ; and at a meeting of the 
Council held on December 23, the King, " with a certain 
quivering of the chin, which was always the indication of 
a troubled mind," insisted on the latter informing him at 
once what was the exact situation of affairs, and obtained 

1 Memoires du Baron de Besenval (edit. Berville and Barriere), i. 267 
et sea. 

2 M. Vatel, to whom the credit of this discovery belongs, takes 
advantage of it to endeavour to discredit the whole story about the 
Abb6 de la Ville, in the interests of Madame du Barry, but there can be 
no doubt that Besenval was well informed in regard to the main facts. 

3 Cited by Mr. J. B. Perkins in "France under Louis XV.," 
ii. 249. 

158 



MADAME DU BARRY 

the Minister's confession that war was inevitable, and that 
it was necessary to prepare for it. Then the monarch 
cried furiously, " Monsieur, je vous avais dit que je ne 
voulais point la guerre" and he ordered Choiseul to enjoin 
immediately upon the Marquis d'Ossun, the French Am- 
bassador at Madrid, to make the greatest efforts to induce 
Carlos III. to subscribe to the English conditions. 

The same day a courier carried to Spain the last 
despatch of Choiseul, and another, sent by a different 
route, a letter from Louis XV. to his cousin, imploring 
him to make some sacrifice for the sake of peace, and 
a note announcing to d'Ossun the disgrace of his chief 
Minister. 

In the same Council, Choiseul, though unaware of the 
despatch of the second courier, comprehended that his 
dismissal had been decided upon. As he offered the pen 
to the King to sign the marriage contract of the Due de 
la Rochefoucauld, Louis, with frowning brow, snatched it 
out of his hand, and, after using it, flung it angrily on the 
table, instead of returning it to the duke. 1 

The following morning, the 24th, Choiseul's ante- 
chamber was, as usual, crowded with suitors. The Due 
de la Vrilliere, 2 Commandeur des Ordres to the King ( cc le 
grand congedieur ordinaire "), entered, requested an im- 

1 Memoires du Baron de Besenval (edit. Berville and Barriere), i. 270. 
Le Ghancelier Maupeou et les Parlements, 182 et seq. 

2 Louis Phelypeaux, better known under his former title of Comte de 
Saint-Florentin. He had been created a duke the previous year. The 
three names by which he was known at different periods of his life, 
Phelypeaux, Saint-Florentin, and La Vrilliere, procured him the 
following mordant epitaph : 

"Ci-git, malgre son rang, un homme fort commun, 
Ayant porte irois noms et tfen laissant aucun." — 
M. Maugras's La Disgrace du Due et de la Duchesse de Choheul, p. i. 

159 



MADAME DU BARRY 

mediate audience of the Minister, and, with some hypo- 
critical words of condolence — he was one of Madame 
du Barry's henchmen, and, like Richelieu, an uncle of 
d'Aiguillon — handed him the lettre-de-cachet which Louis 
had written three days before. 

" I order my cousin to deliver his resignation of his 
offices of Secretary of State and Surintendant des Posies 
into the hands of the Due de la Vrilliere and to retire to 
Chanteloup until further orders from me. 

« Louis." 1 

Such were the terms in which Louis XV. dismissed the 
Minister to whom had been confided for twelve years the 
destinies of France. 

Choiseul was required to leave Versailles within two 
hours, while only twenty-four were allowed him in which 
to make his preparations for quitting the capital. He 
started at once for Paris, where he found the duchess 
about to sit down to dinner. 

1 Revue de Paris, 1829, vol. iv. 62; communicated by Gabriel, Due 
de Choisef.l, who possessed the original letter. 

The instructions to La Vrilliere, also in the King's handwriting, show 
to what a point he had carried his irritation against the disgraced 
Minister : " The Due de La Vrilliere will deliver the accompanying 
orders to MM. de Choiseul (Choiseul and his cousin, the Due de 
Choiseul-Praslin, Minister of the Marine), and will bring me their 
resignations. Were it not on account of Madame de Choiseul, I would 
have exiled her husband elsewhere, as his estate is situated in his govern- 
ment (Touraine) ; but he will conduct himself as if he were not residing 
there, and will see no one, except his family and those to whom I may 
give permission to visit him." 

The lettre-de-cachet exiling the Due de Praslin contained only two 
lines : " I have no further need of your services, and I exile you to 
Praslin, whither you will betake yourself within twenty-four hours." 

160 



MADAME DU BARRY 

" You have the appearance of an exiled man," said she, 
laughing. " But sit down, your dinner will not taste the 
worse for that." And they dined with excellent appe- 
tites. 1 

That Choiseul deserved his fate there can, we think, 

be little doubt. No condemnation indeed can well be 

too strong for a Minister who, for the sake of outwitting 

his private enemies and preserving his own ascendency, 

is prepared to plunge his country into all the horrors of 

war. Nevertheless, the Parisians, who did not know 

what we know to-day, and who saw in him only an able 

and patriotic statesman sacrificed to the machinations of 

an unpopular cabal, chose to make of him a kind of hero 

As soon as the news of his disgrace reached the capital, the 

whole city was in a ferment of excitement. Expressions 

of regret and indignation were heard on every side, and all 

classes united in manifestations of sympathy. Although 

he had been forbidden to receive visits from any but 

members of his own family during the short time he was 

permitted to remain in Paris, and two exempts had been 

stationed by the Lieutenant of Police at his door to ensure 

that this order was observed, his numerous friends, headed 

by the Due de Chartres, famous in after years under the 

name of Philippe Egalite, forced their way into the house 

to offer him their condolences and bid him farewell. All 

the streets leading to the Rue de Richelieu, in which the 

Hotel de Choiseul was situated, were so blocked with the 

carriages of people who came to inscribe their names in 

his visitors' book, as a last token of esteem and affection 

" for the great Minister whom France had lost," that for 

some hours ordinary traffic was entirely suspended. As, 

in spite of the large emoluments of his different offices 

1 M. Maugras's La Disgrace du Due et la Duchesse de Choiseul, p. 3. 

161 t 



MADAME DU BARRY 

and his wife's wealth, he was known to have contracted 
immense debts and to be embarrassed for money, his 
friends hastened to place their credit at his disposal, and 
within a few hours these offers amounted to no less a sum 
than four million livres. 1 

The exiled Minister's departure on the morrow partook 
of the nature of a veritable triumph. An enormous crowd 
lined the streets from his hotel to the Barriere d'Enfer, 
while the windows and even the roofs of the houses were 
thronged with spectators ; and when the coach containing 
the duke and duchess appeared, followed by a long cortege 
of their friends' carriages, the multitude broke forth into 
loud and continued acclamations. " Never has disgrace 
been accompanied by so much glory," wrote Madame du 
Deffand. " There is no such example in histories ancient 
or modern." 

The popular excitement continued long after the 
departure of Choiseul and showed itself in a hundred 
different ways. Portraits and busts of the duke were 
seen everywhere ; medals were struck to perpetuate the 
memory of the event ; snuff-boxes bearing on one side the 
head of Choiseul and on the other that of Sully, the great 
Minister of Henri IV., were sold in the streets 2 ; and 
Moreau painted a charming picture representing Choiseul 
supporting France, Glory in the act of depositing a crown 
of laurel on the duke's head, while people prostrated 
themselves at his feet, and Envy, in a corner, turned away 
her head in anger. Verses in praise of the fallen Minister 
and satirising his enemies and the King circulated 

1 M. Flammermont's Le Chance Her Maupeon et les Par lements, p. 186. 
Belleval's Souvenirs d'un Chevau-leger, p. 143. 

2 " Tiens ! " cried the witty actress, Sophie Arnould, on being shown 
one of these. " They have put the receipts and the expenses together." 

162 



MADAME DU BARRY 

everywhere, and the following song obtained a grea^ 

vogue : 

u Le Bien-Aim6 de l'Almanach 
N'est pas le Bien-Aime de France, 
II fait tout ab hoc et ab hac 
Le Bien-Aime de l'Almanach. 

" II met tout dans le meme sac 
Et la Justice et la Finance ; 
Le Bien-Aime de l'Almanach 
N'est pas le Bien-Aime de France." 1 

Until now Ministers in exile had received few marks of 
sympathy or attachment, even from their relatives and 
dearest friends. Maurepas at Bourges, Machault at 
Arnouville, d'Argenson at Ormes, and Bernis at Soissons 
had lived in the most complete isolation ; people dared 
not mention their names at Court, much less openly brave 
the royal displeasure by visiting them. But times had 
changed. The age and feebleness of the King and the 
disunion in the Royal Family had permeated the whole 
Court with a spirit of independence and insubordination 
hitherto unknown, and which, in the ensuing reign, was to 
assume alarming proportions. The Dauphiness and the 
Due de Chartres did not attempt to conceal the regret 
with which the exile of Choiseul inspired them, and the 
frequency of the requests made to him for permission to 
visit the disgraced Minister compelled Louis to give a sort 
of qualified consent, and he, accordingly, replied to all 
applicants, " I neither permit nor forbid you." 2 

1 Cited in Anecdotes sur Madame la Comtesse du Barry, p. 193. 

2 M. Maugras's La Disgrace du Due et de la Duchesse de Choiseul,^. 78. 
The ex-Comptroller-General, Maynon d'Invau, having requested 

permission, La Vrilliere wrote : " I have submitted to the King the 
letter wherein you ask permission to go to Chanteloup, and his Majesty 
has done me the honour to reply that he has never accorded any one 

163 



MADAME DU BARRY 

Thenceforth a continuous stream of prominent persons 
repaired to Chanteloup, where Choiseul, notwithstanding 
his enormous debts, lived in almost regal state and dis- 
pensed the most magnificent hospitality. " During the 
four years that the exile of the Minister lasted," says 
Dutens, " there was scarcely a day on which some person 
from the Court did not arrive at or leave Chanteloup, and 
the King was surprised to learn that its salons were 
frequently more brilliant than those of Versailles. The 
secrets of the Cabinet were as well known there as at 
Versailles, and the errors of the new Ministry were so 
strictly examined that the company of Chanteloup was 
dreaded as a tribunal. Even the King became curious to 
learn its decisions, and he frequently asked those who 
returned thence, ' What do they say at Chanteloup ? '" l 

permission to go there, but that he has not refused, and that he has left 
those who have asked the liberty of themselves deciding what they will 
do." — E. and J. de Goncourt's La Du Barry, p. 118. 

1 Memoires tfun voyageur qui se repose, ii. 86. The memoirs of the time 
contain some interesting particulars about this magnificent chateau and 
the splendour which Choiseul maintained there. Cheverny says that 
those who drove up at night fancied they were entering Versailles, 
owing to the immense extent of the buildings and the lavish manner in 
which they were lighted up, both within and without ; and that he 
occupied twenty minutes in passing along the corridors of the chateau 
from the apartments allotted to him to those of a fellow-guest. Dutens 
describes it as " a delightful place, where the most complete and the 
most magnificent establishment was kept up that I have seen at the house 
of any great nobleman in Europe" ; and tells us that, on the occasion 
when he visited it, there were four hundred persons living in the house, 
including those in the service of the duke, fifty-four of whom were in 
livery, and that the account for bread alone amounted to three hundred 
livres a day. Small wonder that Choiseul's friends had to come to his 
assistance ! 



164. 



CHAPTER XII 

Destruction of the Parliament of Paris and banishment of its 
members — Popular indignation — Reforms of Maupeou — Bed 
of Justice of April 13, 1771 — "I will never change" — Pur- 
chase by Madame du Barry of Van Dyck's portrait of Charles I. 
— Anecdote concerning this picture — Its history — Persecution 
of the partisans of Choiseul — Reluctance of Louis XV. to ap- 
point d'Aiguillon to the Foreign Office — The Comte de Broglie 
— Intrigues and confusion at Versailles — D'Aiguillon made 
Minister of Foreign Affairs — Dinner at Louveciennes in 
honour of his appointment — Bust by Pajou and portrait by 
Drouais of Madame du Barry at the Salon of 177 1 — Visit of 
the Prince-Royal of Sweden (Gustavus III.) to France — His 
relations with Madame du Barry — Choiseul deprived of his 
post of Colonel-General of the Swiss — The Due du Chatelet 
comes to Versailles to plead his cause — Interview between him 
and the favourite — Madame du Barry succeeds in obtaining 
compensation for Choiseul — Ingratitude of the fallen Minister. 

Choiseul disgraced, Spain, as had been foreseen, hastened 
to comply with the English demands, and Louis XV. and 
Maupeou found their hands free to deal with the Parlia- 
ment, which, it will be remembered, had closed the courts 
as a protest against the edict of December 3. 

This was a step to which the Parliament had had 
recourse before on several occasions, and generally with 
some degree of success. Closing the courts often brought 
temporary exile and other annoyances to the judges, but 
the vexation to the Government and inconvenience to the 

165 



MADAME DU BARRY 

community at large caused by the suspension of justice 
had ended in the magistracy obtaining concessions. 

The present rupture, however, was destined to have a 
very different termination. In lettres de jussion, five 
times repeated, the King ordered the Parliament to 
resume its functions, and the members as often refused to 
obey. On the night of January 19-20, each judge was 
roused from his slumbers by two Musketeers, who pre- 
sented him with an order from the King to resume 
his duties, to which he was to answer a simple yes or no 
in writing, and that immediately and without taking 
counsel with any one. A few, alarmed by this nocturnal 
summons, were afraid to signify a formal disobedience to 
the royal commands, but the majority stood firm ; and 
when, on the following morning, the Parliament was 
hurriedly convened to discuss the situation, the weaker 
members repudiated the promise which fear had extorted 
from them, and the whole body reiterated its defiance ot 
the King. 

Maupeou had long since determined to be content with 
no half-measures ; if the members of the Parliament 
declined to exercise the duties of judges, they should cease 
to be judges, and give place to those who would know 
better than to oppose the King's edicts. Moreover, quite 
apart from all considerations of the royal authority, a 
reform in the judicial system was urgently needed, and 
Despotism masquerading in the garb of Progress was a 
spectacle which appealed irresistibly to his cynical mind. 
He, accordingly, resolved to strike a final and decisive 
blow without delay. 

That night, the unfortunate judges were again awa- 
kened, on this occasion by an officer of the Council, who 
notified to them a decree of that body declaring their 

166 



MADAME DU BARRY 

offices confiscated, and forbidding them for the future to 
exercise any of their functions or even to assume the title 
of members of the Parliament. To this officer succeeded 
Musketeers, bearing lettres-de-cachet, which exiled them to 
distant provinces. 1 

These measures created the most unbounded amaze- 
ment and indignation, even among those who had 
hitherto had but little sympathy with the Parliament, for 
not only had an institution which had been powerful in 
the days of Saint-Louis and Philippe le Bel been swept 
away at a single stroke, but an outrageous attack had 
been made on the sanctity of vested interests. Judicial 
dignities could only be acquired by inheritance or pur- 
chase ; some had been handed down from father to son 
through many generations ; others had repeatedly 
changed hands for very large sums of money, and all had 
until that moment been regarded as sound a form of 
investment as land or houses. It is true that the dis- 
possessed magistrates were subsequently permitted to 
demand compensation ; but the price fixed was very far 
below the value of their offices, and the knowledge that 
the Government did not hesitate to invade the rights of 
property aroused a feeling of uneasiness throughout the 
entire community. 2 

In Paris, the popular indignation assumed its usual 
form, and a storm of chansons ', pamphlets, and epigrams, 
some of them couched in the most threatening language, 
rained upon Maupeou. 3 But, undeterred by the public 

1 Vie privee de Louis XV., iv. x^^et seq. 

Mr. J. B. Perkins's " France under Louis XV.," ii. 271. 
3 Here is an extract from a pamphlet cited in Les Fastes de 
Louis XV. : 
" Maupeou is the most abominable monster that hell has ever vomited 

167 



MADAME DU BARRY 

clamour and the violent remonstrances of the provincial 
Parliaments, 1 the Chancellor steadily pursued the course 
he had marked out for himself. On January 23, the 
members of the Council of State were provisionally com- 
missioned to render justice at the Palais, and were in- 
stalled with great pomp, amid the hooting of the populace. 
A month later, an edict established six superior councils 
at Arras, Blois, Chalons, Clermont-Ferrand, Lyons, and 
Poitiers, all of which towns had hitherto been included 
within the jurisdiction of the Parliament of Paris, to the 
great loss and inconvenience of litigants residing therein, 
who had been compelled to carry their appeals to the 
capital. The members of these new courts were strictly 
forbidden to receive any term-fees, judges' fees, or other 
perquisites over and above their salaries. On April 9, 
the Cour des Aides was swept away, and its members and 
its jurisdiction divided between the new Parliament and 
the superior councils. Finally, on the 13th of the same 
month, a Bed of Justice was held, in which were read 
three edicts : the first, abolishing the old Parliament ; 
the second, abolishing the Cour des Aides ; the third, 

forth to distress the kingdom, the most damnable hypocrite, the most 
determined villain that has ever been seen on earth. The Jacques 
Clements, Ravaillacs and Damiens may yield him the first place in their 
parricidal gang. The Sicilian Vespers, the Saint-Bartholomew, the 
defeats of Poitiers, Azincourt, and Malplaquet were lucky days for the 
nation in comparison with that on which this traitor was born, for they 
only destroyed some Frenchmen, whereas this impious wretch would 
wipe out the very name. What good citizen, if any such are still left 
us, would not solicit the honour to load, charge, and fire the weapon 
which should revenge the nation and deliver it for ever from the villain 
who has ruined it ? " 

1 The provincial Parliaments met with substantially the same fate as 
the Parliament of Paris ; the unruly members being deprived of their 
offices and their places filled by men more amenable to the royal will. 

168 



MADAME DU BARRY 

transforming the old Grand Council into the new Parlia- 
ment. 

After the edicts had been read, Louis XV. rose and 
terminated the sitting with these words : " You have 
heard my will ; I desire that you will conform to it. I 
order you to commence your functions on Monday ; 
my Chancellor will install you. I forbid any delibera- 
tions contrary to my edicts and all representations 
in favour of my former Parliament, for I will never 
change." 

Madame du Barry assisted at this ceremony, " hidden 
behind a gauze curtain." As she was leaving the Palais, 
she encountered the Due de Nivernais, who, with ten 
other peers, had given his opinion against the registration 
of the edicts. 1 

" I hope, Monsieur le Due," said she, " that you will 
cease to oppose the King's wishes, for, as you have heard 
his Majesty say, he will never change." 

" True, Madame," replied the gallant duke ; " but 
when he said that he was looking at you." 

It has frequently been asserted that, but for the assistance 
he derived from the caquetage of Madame du Barry, Mau- 
peou would never have succeeded in inducing Louis XV. 
to sanction the destruction of the Parliaments. Historians 
like Michelet and Henri Martin have given the weight of 
their authority to this charge, which, however, appears to 
rest on no better foundation than an anecdote related by 

1 The Princes of the Blood (with the single exception of the Comte 
de la Marche), headed by the Due d'Orleans and the Prince de Cond£, 
had refused to attend the bed of justice, and sent a vigorous protest to 
the King, " couched in harsh and barbaric language." Louis seized the 
protest and threw it into the fire, and forbade the princes to appear in 
his presence or in that of the Dauphin and Dauphiness. 

169 



MADAME D f U BARRY 

the Nouvelles a la main. 1 Writing under date March 25, 
1 77 1, Bachaumont says : 

" The Empress of Russia has carried ofF the picture- 
gallery of the Comte de Thiers, a distinguished amateur, 
who had a very fine collection. M. Marigny (Director- 
General of the Board of Works, an office which included 
the supervision of the art-collections of France) has had 
the mortification of seeing these treasures go to a foreign 
country, for lack of funds to purchase them for the King. 
Among the pictures, was a full-length portrait of Charles I., 
King of England, by Van Dyck. This is the only one 
which has remained in France. The Comtesse du Barry, 
who displays more and more taste for the arts, gave orders 
for it to be bought. She paid 24,000 livres for it, and 
when she was reproved for having selected this picture 
among so many which would have been more suitable, 
pretended that she was recovering a family portrait. In 
fact, the Du Barrys claim to be related to the House of 
Stuart." 

On October 22, the Nouvelles, which was now edited 
by the ingenious Pidansat de Mairobert, Bachaumont 
having died in the preceding April, returns to the subject 
of Charles I.'s portrait : 

1 Nouvelles a la main was the name given in the seventeenth century 
to clandestinely printed gazettes, which contained news of the Court and 
the town, generally in a highly piquant form. They were prohibited 
by the Parliament of Paris in 1620, and in 1666 and 1670 the penalty 
of whipping and the galleys was decreed against the vendors. They 
still continued to be circulated however, and it was not until some years 
later that La Reynie, the Lieutenant of Police, contrived to suppress 
them. They reappeared under the Regency, when Madame Doublet 
published a weekly journal, entitled Nouvelles a la main, which was 
continued by Bachaumont, and, after his death, by Pidansat de 
Mairobert. 

17c 



MADAME DU BARRY 

" People are talking much of the full-length portrait of 
Charles I., purchased for 20,000 livres by Madame du 
Barry. This lady has placed it in her apartments, together 
with that of the King, and, it appears, not without design. 
It is asserted that she shows it to the King, whenever his 
Majesty, relapsing into his normal kindness of disposition, 
seems to weary of violence and inclines towards clemency. 
She tells him that perhaps his Parliament would have 
made some attempt similar to that of England, if the 
Chancellor had not foreseen their insane and criminal 
designs and checked them before they had reached the 
degree of baseness and wickedness required to put them 
into execution. 1 However absurd and atrocious such an 
imputation may be, it reinflames the prince for the moment, 
and it is from the foot of this picture that proceed the 
destroying thunderbolts that smite the magistrates and 
pulverise them in the remotest corners of the realm. 

" One is well assured that a calumny so atrocious and 
so deliberate cannot proceed from the tender and ingenuous 
heart of Madame la Comtesse du Barry, and that the 
alarms with which she inspires the King are instigated by 
advisers whose policy is as clever as it is infernal." 

" This anecdote, justified by events, is attested by 
courtiers whose testimony carries great weight." 

The portrait referred to by the Nouvelles is the beautiful 
painting, now in the Louvre, representing the King followed 
by a squire leading his horse, which the famous engraving 
of Le Strange has helped to popularise. Considerable 

1 " Behold that unfortunate monarch," said she to him. " Your 
Parliament would perhaps have ended by treating you as he was treated 
by the Parliament of England, if you had not had a Minister to 
oppose their designs and set their menaces at defiance." — Vie privie de 
Louis XF., iv. 160. 

171 



MADAME DU BARRY 

doubt exists as to whether this portrait ever belonged to 
Baron de Thiers, but, contrary to the opinion expressed 
by Mr. R. B. Douglas, in his " Life and Times of 
Madame du Barry," there is none whatever that it 
was at one time the property of the favourite. Here, 
however, is what M. Jules Guiffrey, the great French 
authority on Van Dyck and his works, has to say on 
the subject : 

" The Louvre Catalogue states that the portrait comes 
from the collection of Louis XV. and that it had belonged 
to Baron de Thiers, who, as is known, sold his fine collec- 
tion bodily to the Empress of Russia. Here there is a 
twofold error. It is, to say the least, very doubtful if the 
portrait of Charles I. ever formed part of Baron de 
Thiers's collection. It is also related that the picture 
figured at the beginning of the eighteenth century in the 
collection of the Comtesse de Verrue, who gave it to the 
Marquis de Lassay. Nevertheless, it is not mentioned in 
the catalogue of the countess's pictures, published for the 
first time by M. Charles Blanc in the Trhor de la Curiositi. 
The collection of the Marquis de Lassay fell partly, as is 
known, to the Comte de la Guiche ; in the latter 's lot was 
Charles I. The collection of the Comte de la Guiche was 
sold by auction in 1770; but the famous picture found 
no purchasers, and the heirs withdrew it at 17,000 livres. 
It was, no doubt, in consequence of this fruitless effort to 
sell the picture that the Comtesse du Barry, in quest of 
distinguished ancestors, to atone for the lowliness of her 
extraction, made direct offers to the owners. A bargain 
was struck, and the favourite became the possessor of the 
picture. She bought it for herself, and not for the King, 
as has often been asserted. Only at the commencement of 
the succeeding reign did she consent to surrender it and 

172 



MADAME DUBARRY 

sell it to King Louis XVI., as will be gathered from the 
correspondence which we shall now cite. 

" After the death of Louis XV., the Comtesse du Barry, 
pressed by her numerous creditors, was reduced to parting 
with a portion of the riches of every kind which royal 
liberality had showered upon her. The Charles I. included 
in this enforced liquidation was offered to M. d'Angiviller, 
Director-General of the Board of Works. The architect 
Le Doux, who had done much work for Madame du 
Barry, undertook the negotiations. We have not been 
able to find his letter, but the three following notes 
render that document unnecessary and all comment super- 
fluous : 

"'Letter of M. d'Angiviller to M. Le Doux. 

ft 1 1 have received, Monsieur, the letter wherein you 
acquaint me with Madame du Barry's fixed intention to 
sell the portrait of Charles I. and of the offer which has 
been made to her. I will not let the opportunity of 
acquiring this valuable work escape. I therefore secure it 
on behalf of the King for the price of 24,000 livres (1000 
louis) which has been offered for it, and this sum will be 
paid down on delivery of the picture. 

" * I am, Monsieur, &c.' "* 

The remaining two letters mentioned by M. Guiffrey 
merely refer to arrangements for the removal of the 
picture from Louveciennes and the payment of the 
purchase-money. 

Thus it will be seen that the portrait of Charles I. did 
belong to Madame du Barry, and that she sold it to 

1 M. Guiftrey's Antoine Van Dyck, sa vie et son ceuvre (Paris, 1882), 
p. 180 et seq. 

173 



MADAME DU BARRY 

Louis XVI. for the exact sum which the Nouvelles state 
that she had paid for it. What amount of truth there 
was in the story of the use the lady made of her purchase 
it is very difficult to say. As Sheridan remarked of Dundas, 
the writers of the Nouvelles were no doubt largely indebted 
to their imagination for their facts; but, on the other hand, 
they were frequently well-informed, and hardly deserve 
the scorn which Madame du Barry's two champions, M. 
Vatel and Mr. Douglas, so unsparingly mete out to them. 
These writers ridicule the story on the ground that the 
sale of the Thiers collection took place at a later date than 
that stated by the Nouvelles, in fact some months after the 
old Parliament of Paris had been sent about its business, 
so that the portrait of Charles I. 1 could not have been in 
Madame du Barry's possession early enough to be used as 
a bogey to frighten the King. But, from the passage 
from M. Guiffrey's work which we have just cited, it 
Would appear that the portrait was acquired, not at the 
sale of Baron de Thiers's pictures in the autumn of 1771, 
but from the heirs of the Comte de la Guiche some time 
in 1770, that is to say, before the suppression of the 
Parliament, which entirely refutes their arguments and 
strengthens the case against the favourite. 

However, if for lack of trustworthy evidence, Madame 
du Barry must be acquitted of the Machiavelian conduct 
attributed to her, for we should hesitate to condemn any 
one on the testimony of Bachaumont and his confreres, 
though, as we have observed, they were not nearly so 
black as M. Vatel and Mr. Douglas appear to imagine, she 
was unquestionably, in some degree, responsible for the 
quashing of the proceedings against d'Aiguillon, and 

1 Van Dyck valued this picture at ,£200, but was persuaded to reduce 
his charge to half that amount. 

174 



MADAME DU BARRY 

cannot, therefore, be held altogether blameless for the 
later developments of the quarrel between the King and 
the magistracy. 



While Maupeou was waging war on the Parliaments, 
d'Aiguillon was engaged in the congenial task of in- 
citing Madame du Barry to persecute the friends of 
Choiseul. Jarente, Bishop of Orleans, who had persuaded 
Madame Adelaide to intercede with the King for the 
recall of Choiseul, was deprived of the distribution of 
benefices ; d'Usson was recalled from Stockholm ; the 
appointment of the Baron de Breteuil as Ambassador at 
the Austrian Court was revoked, just as he was on the 
point of starting for Vienna ; Rulhiere was deprived of 
his pension and his place in the Foreign Office ; the unfor- 
tunate Prince de Beauvau, whose imperious wife had 
taken so prominent a part in the attacks upon the 
favourite, lost his post of Governor of Languedoc, though 
he was over a million livres in debt ; and kttres-de-cachet 
were suspended over the heads of the Archbishop of 
Toulouse, Malesherbes, the Due de Duras, and even 
Sartine, the Lieutenant of Police. D'Aiguillon and the 
favourite dealt blows on every side, and as they could 
not strike their feminine adversaries directly, they 
struck at them through their husbands, their lovers, or 
their brothers. Desolation and alarm reigned in the 
salons whence had proceeded the quips and gibes and 
epigrams against Madame du Barry and her reputed lover 
for no one knew upon whom the next blow might fall. 
" The lady is more supreme than her predecessor or 
even Cardinal de Fleury," wrote Madame du Deffand to 
Horace Walpole ; " she is exasperated to the last degree. 

i75 



MADAME DU BARRY 

We are passing through a terrible time here ; it is impos- 
sible to foresee where it will end." 1 

But great as was the influence of Madame du Barry 
over her royal adorer, she was for some months unable to 
overcome the reluctance of the King to promote d'Aiguillon 
to the Foreign Office, which was the goal of that intriguing 
nobleman's ambition. Louis had always disliked d'Aiguillon 
— he had never been able to pardon him for having been, 
for a time, his successful rival in the affections of Madame 
de Chateauroux — and to make a Foreign Minister of a 
man who was but yesterday an accused person was to defy 
public opinion to an extent from which a far bolder 
monarch than himself might well recoil. Moreover, the 
duke's pretensions encountered serious obstacles in the 
opposition of the Prince de Conde, who, until he fell into 
disgrace on account of his sympathy with the Parliament, 
exercised considerable influence, and at the beginning of 
January succeeded in thrusting one of his -protigis^ the 
Marquis de Monteynard, into the Ministry of War ; and 
from a rival candidate, whose qualifications for the post 
were far superior to his own. 

This was the Comte de Broglie, surnamed " the little 
intriguer," who had formerly been French Ambassador at 
Warsaw, and, in 1767, had succeeded Tercier as conductor 
of the secret diplomatic correspondence of Louis XV. 
Broglie had nothing to aid him on the side of Conde, who 
had a long-standing grievance against the count's elder 
brother, the Marechal de Broglie, dating back to the time 
of the Seven Years' War 1 : but he had public opinion on his 

1 Letter of March 26, 1771. 

2 This resentment was so bitter that it survived the fall of the 
Monarchy, and twenty years later, during the emigration, the prince 
and the old marshal, commanding the same troops and involved in the 

176 



MADAME DU BARRY 

side, especially among the representatives of foreign 
Courts, and had the support of the Marechale de Mirepoix 
and Mademoiselle " Chon " du Barry, the sister-in-law of 
the favourite. 

For five months the post of Minister for Foreign 
Affairs remained vacant ; while clouds were gathering 
upon the horizon, the French agents abroad and the 
Ambassadors in Paris were complaining every day of the 
absolute ignorance in which they were left, and foreign 
princes waited about at Versailles until a successor to 
Choiseul should be appointed. 1 D'Aiguillon intrigued 
against Broglie, Broglie intrigued against d'Aiguillon, 2 and 
same disasters, could hardly bring themselves to speak to one another. — 
The Due de Broglie's Le Secret du Rot, ii. 339. 

1 Ibid. 352. 

2 Broglie bombarded Louis XV. with letters, in which he carried 
flattery and servility to their utmost limits. In one written on 
January 14, 1771, he says: "The knowledge that, under the sole 
direction of your Majesty, the King of Spain has been compelled to 
accept the conditions imposed by England has occasioned the greatest 
joy. The value of this most fortunate peace is infinitely augmented in 
the eyes of your subjects by the knowledge that they owe it to your 
paternal care, and everybody exclaims with enthusiasm and regret, 
* Why does not the King do everything and decide upon everything, 
himself? nothing would then be wanting to our happiness and his 
glory.' " And this at a time when the most distinguished persons in 
France were flocking to Chanteloup, and " Le Bien-Aitne de V Almanack" 
was being sung at every street corner ! 

In another letter, the count informs the King that " he should indeed 
be flattered if Madame du Barry entertained a sufficiently good opinion 
of him to lead her to desire that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs should 
be conferred upon him." — Le Secret du Rot, ii. 343, 352. 

The servility of Broglie, however, must not blind us to the fact that 
he was by far the most suitable candidate for the post to which he 
aspired. He was the first French statesman to foresee the designs of the 
Eastern Powers upon Poland, and had he been appointed to the Foreign 
Office, would have undoubtedly striven his utmost to checkmate them. 

177 M 



MADAME DU BARRY 

Conde" intrigued against both. Madame du Barry sup- 
ported her prottgt ; Monteynard, the new Minister for 
War, Maupeou, and Terray sided with Conde ; while 
the Marechale de Mirepoix and Mademoiselle " Chon " 
espoused the cause of the diplomatist, who also had the 
assistance of a certain fascinating Chevalier de Jaucourt, 
called by his friends " Clair-de-lune" owing to his talent for 
relating ghost-stories, who endeavoured to frustrate 
d'Aiguillon's ambitions by supplanting him in the affec- 
tions of the favourite. 

" It is almost impossible that your Majesty should form 
a correct idea of the horrible confusion which reigns 
here," wrote Mercy to Maria Theresa. " The throne is 
disgraced by the extensive and indecent influence of the 
favourite and her partisans. The nation shows its feeling 
by seditious remarks and disloyal pamphlets, in which the 
person of the sovereign is not spared. 1 Versailles is the 
abode of treachery, spite, and hatred ; everything is done 
through motives of personal interest, and all honourable 
feeling discarded." 2 

At length, in June, Cond6 having in the meantime 
fallen into disgrace, Louis XV. grew weary of the impor- 
tunities of his mistress, and allowed a reluctant consent to 
be wrung from him that the Foreign Office should be 
given to d'Aiguillon, to the indignation of Broglie, the dis- 
gust of the whole nation, and the amazement of Europe. 3 

1 One morning, a placard bearing the following words was found 
affixed to the King's statue by Bouchardon, in the Place Louis XV. : 
" By order of the Mint. A Louis badly struck must be struck again." 
This, of course, referred to the attempted assassination of the King by 
Damiens, on January 5, 1757, and was nothing less than a thinly veiled 
incitement to regicide. 

2 Letter of April 16, 177 1. 

8 The Marine, which had likewise been a bone of contention, had 

178 



MADAME DU BARRY 

The nomination of her prot6g6 was celebrated by 
Madame du Barry, in the following September, by a 
grand dinner at Louveciennes, at which were present 
the wife of the new Minister, the dowager Duchesse 
d'Aiguillon — " la grosse duchesse" as Madame du DefFand 
styles her — the Marechale de Mirepoix, the Princesse de 
Montmorency, the Comtesse de Valentinois, the Chan- 
cellor and all the Ministers of State, and the whole of the 
Corps Diplomatique, with the exception of the Ambas- 
sadors of Spain and Naples. 1 These Ministers, acting 
presumably on instructions from their Courts, had de- 
clined to visit the favourite, and Fuentes, the Spanish 
Ambassador, went so far as to refuse invitations to 
functions at which the lady was to be present. The 
representative of Great Britain, on the other hand, 
showed most gratifying complacence, and, in February 
1772, gave a dinner-party exclusively to the d'Aiguillon 
and Du Barry faction. 

At the Salon of 177 1 Madame du Barry was again in 
evidence. Two important works were consecrated to the 
favourite — one, a bust in terra-cotta, by Pajou ; the other, a 
full-length portrait, by Drouais, in which the lady was 
represented as one of the Muses. 2 

been filled in the previous April by the appointment of Boynes, a crea- 
ture of d'Aiguillon. Until then its duties had been discharged by 
Terray. 

1 Madame du DefFand to Horace Walpole, September 25, 177 1. 

2 Here is a contemporary description of the portrait : " The Comtesse 
du Barry is painted as a Muse. She is seated, and is partly veiled by 
light and transparent draperies, which are gathered up below the left 
breast, leaving the legs uncovered to the knees, and revealing the outline 
of the rest of her figure. In her right hand she holds a harp and a 
crown of flowers ; in the left she carries other flowers. The foreground 

179 



MADAME DU BARRY 

The bust in terra-cotta by Pajou, the marble reproduc- 
tion of which, exhibited at the Salon of 1773, and now in 
the Louvre, is by many considered that sculptor's chef- 
d'txuvre^ was generally admired and warmly praised by the 
Mercure. But the picture was not so fortunate, as the 
devout, " who only care to see women veiled from head 
to foot," were shocked at the mythological nudity of the 
figure ; and Madame du Barry, hearing of this, ordered 
it to be at once removed from the walls of the Salon. 

In February 1771, the Prince Royal of Sweden, the 
future Gustavus III., arrived in Paris, accompanied by his 
younger brother, Frederick. The ostensible object of his 
visit was to improve his mind by a course of foreign travel, 
and he took up his quarters at the Swedish Legation, Rue 
de Grenelle Saint-Germain, under the name of the Graf 
von Gothland. But, in point of fact, he had been sent by 
his mother, Queen Ulrica, sister of Frederick the Great, 
on the invitation of Choiseul, to solicit French assistance 
in the difficult enterprise which was to end in his coup 
d'Etat of August 19, 1772. 

When Choiseul's invitation was sent the duke was, of 
course, still in office ; but the young prince reached Paris 
to find his hoped-for ally exiled and his enemies wrangling 
over his departments; and was, in consequence, placed 
in a somewhat embarrassing position. Acting, however, 
on the advice of Creutz, the sagacious and popular 
Swedish Ambassador, he resolved to pay court to all 

of the picture is filled by books, paint-brushes, and various attributes of 
the arts." — Cited by M. Vatel in Histoire de Madame du Barry, ii. 83. 

1 Gustaf Philip Creutz (1 729-1 785), the most celebrated Swedish 
poet of the eighteenth century, author of the beautiful idyll Atis och 
Camilla, and the exquisite pastoral Daphne. 



MADAME DU BARRY 

parties, and won golden opinions from all. One day, 
he sent his compliments to Chanteloup through Madame 
du Deffand, and the next he supped at Rueil with the 
d'Aiguillons, Richelieu, and Maupeou. On another, he 
showed himself in the salon of the Comtesse d'Egmont 1 
in the Rue Louis-le-Grand, and on a fourth went to the 
Palais-Bourbon to visit the Prince de Conde. Nor did he 
neglect to render homage to the reigning sultana, whose 
heart he quite won by presenting a rich collar, some 
writers say of gold, others of diamonds, to her favourite 
lapdog. " On raconte ici (Vienna) des ^assesses du Roi de 
Suede 2 vis-a-vis cette femme" writes Maria Theresa. 
u Quelle honte ! " 3 

On November 13, Madame du Deffand informs her 
friend at Strawberry Hill : " The Idol (Madame du 
Barry) is at the height of her glory ; she has written to 
the King of Sweden ; her letter did not reach the King ; 

1 Sophie Jeanne Armande Elisabeth Septimanie de Vignerod du 
Plessis de Richelieu, daughter of the notorious Due de Richelieu, by his 
second marriage with Elisabeth Sophie de Lorraine, and wife of Casimir, 
Marquis de Pignatelli, Due de Bisaccia, Comte d'Egmont. At her 
husband's h6tel, and also at that of her father, she kept a brilliant salon, 
which was frequented by diplomatists, like Mercy, Lord Stormont, 
Creutz, Gleichen, and Fuentes ; painters and sculptors, like Roslin, Le 
Moyne, Chardin, and Hall ; and men of letters, like Jean Jacques 
Rousseau and Ruhliere. Her salon was at this time a centre of resistance 
to Maupeou, whose reforms Madame d'Egmont and her friend, the 
Comtesse de Brionne, opposed with great energy. Brought into connec- 
tion with Gustavus III. by Creutz, the countess encouraged and aided 
him in his efforts to obtain the support of France for the projects he 
meditated in Sweden. An affection " trh vive et qui par ait avoir et& 
pure," sprung up between the two, and they corresponded regularly 
until the lady's untimely death in October 1773. 

2 Gustavus had received the news of the death of his father and his 
succession to the throne of Sweden on March 1. 

3 Letter to Mercy-Argenteau, April 1, 1771. 

181 



MADAME DU BARRY 

but, as it was announced to him, he has forestalled her and 
written to her des choses charmantes et admirables" 

At this time a rumour was afloat that " the Idol " had 
sent, or was about to send, her portrait to Gustavus, and 
poor Madame d'Egmont, who had promised hers to the 
monarch, was in despair and addressed the most pathetic 
letters to Stockholm. 

" Place me then in a position to send you my portrait," 
she writes. " I cannot do so without a positive assurance 
that you have not nor will have that of Madame du 
Barry." She returns to the charge in another letter : 
" Sire, it is said that you have asked for the portrait of 
Madame du Barry ; they go even so far as to assert that 
you have written to her. I have denied it at all costs, but 
it has been persisted in in so positive a manner that I 
implore you to authorise me to contradict it. No, it 
cannot be." Finally, in a third letter, she says : " I ask 
again for an answer concerning the portrait of Madame 
du Barry. Deign then to give me your word of honour 
that you neither have nor ever intend to have it." l 

At the beginning of January 1772, a difficulty arose 
about the payment of the subsidies which had been 
promised by France to Gustavus to assist him in the 
execution of the projects he was meditating in Sweden, 
d'Aiguillon declaring that it was absolutely impossible to 
obtain the money. The poet-ambassador in the Rue 
Grenelle Saint-Germain, however, knew his Versailles as 
intimately as did Mercy himself, and forthwith wrote to 
his master : 

" In this terrible situation, here are the expedients that 

I propose to your Majesty : (1) To write a very touching 

letter to the King, a very flattering one to Madame du 

1 Geffroy's Gustave III. et la Cour de France, i. 242. 

182 



MADAME DU BARRY 

Barry ', and one full of confidence and friendship to the Due 
d'Aiguillon. This is of the most vital importance . . . .V 

Gustavus lost not a moment in despatching the touch- 
ing, flattering, and friendly epistles to their respective 
destinations, and on the 16th of the same month the 
delighted Creutz sends a courier to announce that his 
Majesty's letters have produced the desired effect : " The 
lady who enjoys the confidence of the King takes the 
most lively interest in all that concerns the King of 
Sweden. She speaks to me continually, and charges me 
to convey her good wishes to your Majesty." 1 

And so it came about that, through the intercession of 
the flattered favourite, the empty French Treasury was 
compelled to disgorge the needed subsidies, and the King 
of Sweden enabled to pave the way for the revolution 
which was to bring his haughty nobility into subjection to 
the Crown. 

The rumour of the previous autumn that Madame du 
Barry intended to bestow her portrait on Gustavus would 
appear to have been well grounded, for shortly after the 
Baron de Lieven had brought to Versailles the official 
announcement of the coup cTEtat of August 19, 1772, on 
which occasion the favourite had joined her felicitations 
to those of Louis XV., we find Creutz writing to his 
sovereign as follows : 

" Madame du Barry was wishful to send to your 
Majesty her bust (by Pajou) and the portrait of herself 
by Greuze 2 ; but this would oblige your Majesty to send 

1 Geffroy's Gustave III. et la Cour de France, i. 148. 

2 This portrait figures among the objects chosen by the commission of 
arts at Louveciennes, after the execution of the countess in 1793. It 
is described in the catalogue as " an unfinished picture representing the 
Dubarry as a Bacchante." — E. and J. de Goncourt's La Du Barry, p. 75, 
note. 

183 



MADAME DU BARRY 

her your portrait and to write to her ; and I, accordingly, 
allowed the matter to drop. It is, however, very essential 
to spare the feelings of Madame du Barry, and I implore 
your Majesty to place me in a position to say some flatter- 
ing things to her. I am high in her favour, but I am 
embarrassed what answer to make to her should she come 
again to propose to me to send her portrait. The King 
is extremely sensitive in regard to everything which con- 
cerns her, and he neither pardons nor forgets the slightest 
thing that may wound her." 1 

Gustavus replied very graciously to Madame du Barry's 
felicitations, 2 but he did not mention the portrait, and 
nothing more was heard about it. Almost at the same 
time, he gave to Madame d'Egmont the solemn promise 
that she had demanded that he would never accept any 
portrait of the favourite; and, in August 1773, two 
months before her untimely death, that lady sent him a 
charming miniature of herself by the Swedish painter 
Hall, which is now in the National Museum at Stock- 
holm. 3 

Never had favourite worked for the fall of a 
Minister with less personal animosity than Madame 

1 Geffroy's Gustave III. et la Cour de France, i. 212. 

2 Here is the King's letter : 

" The interest that you take in my success renders it the more agree- 
able to me. Baron de Lieven has given me a faithful account of the good 
will that you have shown for me, and I thank you for it sincerely. I 
reckon with confidence on the sentiments that you have always mani- 
fested for me, and I do not doubt that I shall often have occasion to 
speak to you of the gratitude with which I am very truly, Madame la 
comtesse du Barry. . . ." 

8 The Comtesse d'Armaille's La Comtesse d'Egmont d*af>rh les lettres 
inidites a Gustave III., p. 275. 

184 



MADAME DU BARRY 

du Barry for that of Choiseul. But for the continual 
promptings of the ignoble triumvirate whose tool she 
had had the misfortune to become, and particularly of 
d'Aiguillon, who had striven to inspire her with something 
of his own hatred of Choiseul, it is doubtful whether she 
would ever have embarked upon the struggle with the 
Minister, much less have carried it through to the bitter 
end. What resentment she had entertained for her 
adversary disappeared with his departure from the Court, 
and gave place to a feeling of sympathy and regret, of 
which an incident which occurred twelve months later 
affords us a striking proof. 

When he had received the King's orders to retire to 
Chanteloup, Choiseul had been deprived of all his offices, 
with one exception, which, from a pecuniary point of view, 
was the most important. This was the post of Colonel- 
General of the Swiss troops in the French service, carrying 
with it a salary of 100,000 livres. 

An impression appears to have prevailed that the office 
in question once conferred could not be taken away, and 
Louis XV., in bestowing it upon the duke in 1762, had 
assured him that he should hold it for life. Moreover, 
the King, at the instance of Carlos III., had given his 
word that no further steps should be taken against the 
fallen Minister ; and as the months went by and the 
salary continued to be paid to him, Choiseul became con- 
vinced that he would be allowed to retain his command. 
His astonishment and indignation, therefore, may be 
imagined when, on the night of December 6, 177 1, a 
courier from the Court arrived at Chanteloup, bearing a 
letter from d'Aiguillon to Choiseul's friend, the Due de 
Chatelet, 1 who was on a visit there, in which the duke 

1 Louis Marie Francois du Chatelet d'Harancourt, son of Voltaire's 

185 



MADAME DU BARRY 

was requested to inform his host that the King, having 
discovered that the post of Colonel-General of the Swiss 
was one which could only be held during his good 
pleasure, had decided that the welfare of his service would 
not permit him to leave it any longer in the hands of 
M. de Choiseul, who must, accordingly, send in his 
resignation forthwith. His Majesty would then be 
willing to consider the question of compensation, although 
he did not recognise that M. de Choiseul had any claim 
to be indemnified. The letter concluded with an intima- 
tion that the King's decision was irrevocable, and the 
words, <c Ce que dessus est ma fagon de vouloir" in Louis' 
own hand. 1 

Du Chatelet duly communicated the contents of this 
very unwelcome epistle to Choiseul, who thereupon ad- 
dressed to the King, not the resignation demanded, but 
a long letter, wherein, after protesting against the manner 
in which he was being treated, he demanded as compensa- 
tion for the loss of his post ( I ) liberty to visit any part of 
France, Paris and the Court excepted ; (2) settlement of 
all the debts he had contracted while in office, including 
three or four million livres which he had borrowed from 
his wife, and two million due to creditors 2 ; (3) a revenue 

" divine Emilie," and believed to be " one of the works of the 
philosopher." He had been French Ambassador at St. James's and 
Vienna, and was Colonel of the Regiment du Roi. 

1 M. Maugras's La Disgrace du Due et~ de la Duchesse de Choiseul, 
p. 149. Madame du DefFand to Horace Walpole, January 6, 1772. 

2 A few days before his dismissal from office, Choiseul had asked the 
King for three million livres to pay his debts. Louis assented and 
signed an order on the Treasury for that amount, but omitted to add the 
words, " Bon pour trois millions" an omission which the Minister did 
not discover until some hours later. He had intended to ask the King 
to rectify the error at the next meeting of the Council, but, unfortu- 

186 



MADAME DU BARRY 

of 40,000 livres on the forest of Haguenau, of which he 
had been grand bailli^ and forest rights worth about 
800,000 livres ; (4) a pension of 50,000 livres, with 
reversion to the duchess. 

These modest demands were carried to Versailles by 
Du Chatelet, who was charged to deliver the letter into 
his Majesty's own hand, and not to intercede in his 
favour with either Ministers or mistress, " whose marks of 
interest would humiliate him." 

However, Du Chatelet took upon himself to ignore 
these instructions and went to d'Aiguillon, whom he had 
known since boyhood. His reception in this quarter was 
far from encouraging. The Minister appeared surprised 
and " shocked " at the demands of M. de Choiseul, as 
well he might be, and though he promised to procure an 
audience of the King for Du Chatelet, did so with such 
very bad grace that his visitor had a shrewd suspicion that 
it was to his machinations that Choiseul owed the loss of 
his post, which, indeed, was the case, 1 and that he would 
use his influence to hinder Louis from granting the 
compensation asked for. 

Much perturbed by the turn that events were taking, 
Du Chatelet decided to have recourse to Madame du 
Barry, and, having obtained an interview with the lady, 
"exposed to her with warmth the enormity of the injustice 

nately for him, that meeting happened to be the one in which the King 
decided on his disgrace. 

1 D'Aiguillon appears to have instigated the Dauphin's brother, the 
Comte de Provence, to ask for Choiseul's post. The count, however, 
did not obtain it, as the Dauphin was so angry when he heard what 
Provence had done that he protested against his appointment ; and the 
command of the Swiss was, in consequence, given to the youngest of the 
three brothers, the Comte d'Artois, a boy of sixteen. 

187 



MADAME DU BARRY 

done to M. de Choiseul and the harshness and bad faith 
of his enemies." 

The favourite received him very kindly, informed him 
that as " there was not a crown in the Treasury " 1 there 
might be some difficulty in complying with M. de 
Choiseul's demands, and that the question of liberty to 
leave Chanteloup had better not be raised for the present, 
but readily promised to do all in her power to further his 
efforts on his friend's behalf. " I was satisfied with her 
replies," writes Du Chatelet to Choiseul. "She told me 
that she entertained no ill-feeling towards you ; that she 
would be charmed to avail herself of the present occasion 
to prove it ; that what had happened in the past was 
entirely your fault ; that, at the beginning, she had done 
everything she could to prevent it ; but that you must 
feel that matters could not be again on the same footing 
as they once were, not as regarded herself, for she was 
a mere nobody, but in regard to the King, whom you 
continually offended in the object of his affections." 

Du Chatelet obtained the desired audience of the King, 
but it availed him little. 

" Is that the resignation that you have there ? " asked 
Louis, perceiving the letter in the duke's hand. 

" No, Sire, but the proposals that M. de Choiseul has 
the honour to make to your Majesty." 

" I do not wish to hear his proposals — I want his 
resignation," rejoined the King. And he declined to 
receive the letter, and referred Du Chatelet back to 
d'Aiguillon. 2 

Here, as may be supposed, he received scant consola- 

1 Belleval tells us that such was the penury of the Treasury at this 
period that the pay of the troops was in arrears. 

2 Madame du DefFand to Horace Walpole, January 6, 1772. 

188 



MADAME DU BARRY 

tion, so he despatched a courier to Chanteloup with a 
letter conjuring Choiseul "in the name of God to yield 
to force," lest worse evils should befall him, after 
which he rushed off to Madame du Barry, whom he 
informed that he was in despair, that his friend's interests 
were his own, that his honour was compromised, and so 
forth. 

Madame du Barry appeared " touched " and c< even 
terrified " by his agitation, declared that she was sincere 
in her desire to help him, and said that, although she 
knew nothing about finance, she would endeavour to 
obtain for Choiseul a pension of 100,000 livres. "She 
concluded," writes Du Chatelet to Choiseul, " by assuring 
me that d'Aiguillon had no power over her ; that she 
gave audience to all who came to her, and did as she 
wished. She promised to let me know on the morrow 
how she had succeeded." 

Next day, the favourite sought out the King, and 
remained closeted with him for two hours and a half, 
pleading the cause of the man who had persecuted her so 
cruelly. " So long an interview augured well for me," 
writes Du Chatelet, " and I flattered myself somewhat on 
my success." 1 

The King was very angry with Madame du Barry for 
interfering, as was d'Aiguillon also ; but at the next meet- 
ing of the Council the matter was discussed, and Du 
Chatelet informed that his Majesty was willing to accord 
Choiseul a pension of 50,000 livres, with reversion to the 
duchess, and 200,000 livres in cash. 

In the meantime, Choiseul had sent in an unconditional 

resignation of his post, a judicious step, which so delighted 

poor Du Chatelet, who was becoming quite ill with anxiety, 

1 Memoires de M. le Due de Choiseul^ ecrtts par lui-mtme, ii. 1, et seq. 

l8q 



MADAME DU BARRY 

that, "in a transport of joy, he twice kissed the courier 
who brought the letter." However, if we are to believe 
Besenval, who was then staying at Chanteloup, the good 
effect produced by the resignation must have been largely 
discounted by a letter which Choiseul sent through the 
post, " intended to be brought to the notice of the King 
and calculated to exasperate him." 

In great alarm, Du Chatelet followed the Court to 
Choisy to entreat Madame du Barry to continue her exer- 
tions on his friend's behalf, and found her with the King 
and d'Aiguillon in the salon. After listening to what 
he had to say, she turned to d'Aiguillon and said, " It 
must be so." Then she engaged the King and Minister 
in conversation, with the result that, as the former took 
his place at the card-table, he exclaimed, " A pension 
of 60,000 livres and 100,000 ecus (300,000 livres) in 
cash." 1 

And so, thanks to the efforts of the faithful Du Chatelet 
and the good offices of the kind-hearted favourite — who 
certainly on this occasion gave an example of Christian 
charity which Mesdames and some of their devout 
friends would have done well to imitate — Choiseul re- 
ceived very handsome compensation for the loss of his 
command, and was enabled to pay his bread bill, though 
apparently not much besides, as when he died, on May 8, 
1785, he was several million livres in debt. 

It would be pleasing could we record that Madame du 
Barry's services met with some recognition from her 
former adversary. Such, unfortunately, was very far from 
being the case. Not only did she never receive a single 
word of thanks, but in the duke's unpublished Memoirs 
we find her described more than once by an exceedingly 

1 Memoires du Baron de Besenval, i. 290. 
190 



MADAME DU BARRY 

unpleasant term ; and we cannot, therefore, subscribe to 
the opinion of Choiseul's enthusiastic biographer, M. 
Maugras, that it would have been impossible for any one 
to have shown in misfortune " une dme -plus forte et -plus 
elevee." 1 

1 La Disgrace du Due et de la Duchesse de Choiseul, p. 168. 



193 



CHAPTER XIII 

Madame du Barry, unlike Madame de Pompadour, does not 
aspire to a political role — Her extravagance and luxury — Her 
apartments at Versailles— Her household — Purchase of an 
h6tel at Versailles — Construction of the Pavilion of Louve- 
ciennes — Description of this building — Moreau le jeune's 
drawing depicting a fete given by Madame du Barry to 
Louis XV. at Louveciennes. 

The position of Madame du Barry after the disgrace of 
Choiseul recalls that of Madame de Pompadour after the 
dismissal of her implacable enemy, the Comte dArgenson, 
in February 1757- So long as the two Ministers in 
question retained their credit, neither lady could feel 
absolutely secure ; the moment they had contrived their 
ruin, all restraints were removed, all fears banished, and 
they began to reign in real earnest. 

But there the comparison ends. " The life, the whole 
life, of Madame de Pompadour belongs to history. It is 
a life of affairs, of intrigues, of negotiations, the maintenance 
of a political role, a public exercise of power, a commerce 
at all hours with Ministers, with Secretaries of State, with 
men of the sword, with men of money, with men of the 
robe, a control of the interests of the nation, and of the 
will of the King, an influence on the destinies of France 
and of Europe." 1 

Madame du Barry, as we have observed elsewhere, 

1 E. and J. de Goncourt's La Du Barry, p. 122. 
192 



MADAME DU BARRY 

cared for none of these things. 1 Her adversary, Choiseul, 
overthrown, her protigi, d'Aiguillon, promoted, she 
hastened to resign the uncongenial part which circum- 
stances had, for a few months, forced her to play, and 
became again merely " la mieux entretenue du royaume." 

Nevertheless, she did not fail to appreciate the victory 
she had won, the sense of increased security, the know- 
ledge that no longer need she be on her guard lest some 
trifling indiscretion should be seized upon and converted 
by a powerful and unscrupulous foe into a formidable 
weapon against her ; and, after her own fashion, she 
enjoyed its fruits as fully as ever had Madame de Pompa- 
dour. For the first two years of her reign there had 
been some bounds to her extravagance ; now there were 
none, even as there seemed no limits to the infatuation of 
the old King and the shameful complaisance of the 
Comptroller-General, who not only persuaded Louis XV. 
to double her monthly pension of 30,000 livres, but in- 
structed Beaujon, the banker of the Court, that the drafts 
of Madame du Barry were to be accepted as " orders of 
the King," with the result that in four years the lady drew 
upon the Treasury for no less a sum than 6,427,803 
livres ! 2 

And so the coffers of the State became the cash-box of 
the favourite, and the money wrung from the pockets of 
the luckless taxpayers by the adventurous Terray was 
poured out in a ceaseless flood on a host of modistes and 

1 She did, however, out of curiosity, attend one meeting of the 
Council, at which she sat upon the arm of the King's chair and played 
many " petites singeries enfantines." 

2 In addition to all this, on the death of the Comte de Clermont, in 
1772, she was accorded one-third of his pension of 300,000 livres, and she 
is also believed to have received immense sums from the sale of monopolies, 
offices, commissions in the army and so forth. 

193 N 



MADAME DU BARRY 

milliners, goldsmiths and jewellers, furniture dealers and 
bric-a-brac merchants ; on silks and laces, on pendants, 
and earrings, and bracelets, on superb toilette-sets 1 and 
costly porcelain, and, what is perhaps less reprehensible, on 
pictures and statuary, and even books — books gorgeously 
bound in red morocco and stamped with the Du Barry 
arms and device. Her toilettes and jewels and equipages 
were the admiration and despair of all the ladies of the 
Court. Pagelle, the renowned modiste of the I'rois 
Gallants in the Rue Saint-Honor6, provided her with " un 
grand habit de satin blanc chind en argent, brodi en paillons 
verts et roses" &c. &c. — the full description of the 
garment would occupy the better part of a page — at a cost 
of 10,500 livres ; Vanot, of the Rue Saint-Denis, with 
" une tres-belle toilette de point d*Argentan et son surtout" 
and " une parure de dishabilU" which cost respectively 
9000, and 7000 livres ; while gowns at 2000, 3000 and 
4000 livres figure in her accounts with almost monoto- 
nous regularity. She had a parure of diamonds valued 
at 450,000 livres, a dinner-service of Sevres porcelain 
for which she paid 21,438 livres, and a magnificent 
vis-a-vis, the panels of which were decorated with her 
arms and *' the famous battle-cry, " Boutez-en-avant* " 
encircled by doves, pierced hearts, quivers, torches — " in 
short, all the attributes of the god of Paphos." This 
resplendent equipage, which was the gift of the grateful 
d'Aiguillon, was reported to have cost 52,000 livres. 
The apartments of the favourite at Versailles formed a 

1 Jacques Roettiers, the famous goldsmith, received orders from the 
King for a " toilette tout en or " for Madame du Barry, but the cost pre- 
vented its completion. The accounts sent in by Roettiers pere et fih to 
the favourite were as follows : January 1770, 34,795 livres ; August 
1771, 156,028 livres ; May 1772, 56,657 livres; November 1773, 
93,606 livres. 

194 



MADAME DU BARRY 

series of boudoirs, each of which 'seemed to those who 
entered for the first time more elegant than another. The 
chimney-piece in the salon was adorned with a magnificent 
clock, "around which a world of porcelain figures disported 
themselves." In the same room were two commodes of 
priceless lacquer, one relieved by figures in gold, the other 
decorated with fine porcelain plaques, which, we are told, 
had not their equals in Europe, From the ceiling hung a 
lustre of rock-crystal, which had cost 16,000 livres, and in a 
a corner stood a beautiful piano, the work of the famous 
Clicot, the case of which was of rosewood, exquisitely inlaid 
and lavishly gilded. The cabinet contained a writing-table 
plated with porcelain, and an inkstand which was a master- 
piece of the goldsmith's art ; while in the bedroom was a 
wonderful clock, which represented "the Three Graces sup- 
porting the vase of Time," and Love indicating the hour 
with his arrow. " The most exquisite objects of art, marvels 
of upholstery, bronzes, marbles, statuettes, abounded in this 
asylum of voluptuous pleasure. It was the last word of 
luxury." 1 

A whole regiment of servants was employed to do the 
bidding of the mistress of all these treasures : eight valets- 
de-chambre and a like number of footmen, two coachmen, 
three postilions, three running-footmen, two sedan-chair- 
men, five grooms, a maitre a" hotel, a clerk to keep the 
household accounts, two valets de garde-robe, a Swiss and 
two gardeners. 

Never had such gorgeous menials been seen before. 
On ordinary occasions, the valets-de-chambre and footmer 
contented themselves with " coats of chamois clot! 

E. and J. de Goncourt's La Du Barry, p. 34. et sea. Imbert de Saint 
Amand's Les Femmes de Versailles : Les Dernieres Annies de Louis XV 
142 et seq. 

195 



MADAME DU BARRY 

gallooned with silver, waistcoats and breeches of chamois 
silk, with buttons, garters, and buckles of silver." But 
on occasions of ceremony, as, for instance, when the King 
dined or supped with their mistress, they appeared arrayed 
in " coats of scarlet cloth gallooned with gold and with 
basques of white Naples silk, scarlet silk waistcoats and 
breeches, with gold buttons, garters, and buckles." The 
coachmen were attired in sky-blue cloth, and chamois 
waistcoats with silver buttons ; the running-footmen, 
postilions — the lady was never drawn by less than four 
horses — and grooms, in blue and silver ; • the sedan-chair- 
men in scarlet and silver ; while the rest of the household 
wore a blue livery gallooned with silver. 

Until the close of the year 1772 Madame du Barry 
had no residence at Versailles, save her apartments in the 
chateau ; the majority of her servants being lodged at 
the Hotel de Luynes, as it was impossible for their 
mistress to accommodate more than a few of them. 
This arrangement was not without its inconveniences, so, 
in December 1772, the favourite purchased from Binet, 
first valet-de-chambre to the Dauphin, for 80,000 livres, 
an hotel, or rather pavilion, situated at the corner of the 
Avenue de Paris and the Rue de Montboron. Her new 
acquisition, however, proved to be far too small for the 
lady's requirements, and she, accordingly, bought some 
four acres of land between the pavilion and the Rue de 
Montboron, and instructed the architect Ledoux to build 
her an hotel here. For some reason, which, curiously 
enough, is not stated, the erection of this hotel, the chief 
feature of which was a splendid porch, appears to have 
given umbrage to the Dauphin, but, according to M. Le 
Roi, the more he objected, the more ostentatiously was the 
work pressed on. 

196 



MADAME DU BARRY 

About the middle of December 1770, Madame du 
Barry, finding that, notwithstanding the alterations and 
additions designed by Gabriel, her chateau of Louveciennes 
was still too small to permit of her entertaining on the 
scale she desired, had commissioned the architect Ledoux 
to construct a pavilion beside it ; and at the beginning of 
January 1772 the building was completed. 1 

This beautiful pavilion, about which so much has been 
written, consisted of a simple rez-de-chausste built of Saint- 
Leu stone, surmounted by a belvedere. It was about 
twenty to twenty-five feet in height and the same in 
breadth, with five windows on each side. 

A flight of seven or eight steps led up to a peristyle of 
four Ionic columns, the pediment of which was adorned 
by a Bacchanalian dance of children in low-relief, the work 
of Lecomte. 

The vestibule, which served on great occasions as 
a dining-room, was built of grey marble with four 
Corinthian pilasters. Between the pilasters, the capitals 
of which were lavishly gilded, were placed four groups of 
women holding horns of plenty, beautifully executed by 
Lecomte and Pajou. At either end of the vestibule were 
tribunes for the accommodation of musicians, and over 
the door leading into the main salon was the portrait of 
a person decorated with the cordon bleu, probably the 
King. Around the room ran a frieze of Cupids, amidst 
which were placed the united arms of Madame du Barry 
and her husband. 2 

1 Some writers have stated that the pavilion was completed in three 
months, and that Ledoux owed his place in the Academy of Architecture 
to the amazing celerity with which he carried out the work ; but this 
was not the case. 

2 And not, says M. Vatel, those of Madame du Barry and Louis XF. y 
as the Goncourts state, which may be seen by examining the beautiful 

197 



MADAME DU BARRY 

Behind the vestibule was the main salon, on either side 
of which were two smaller salons. The main salon 
contained dessus-de-portes by Fragonard, 1 some beautiful 
arabesques, delicately carved by Metivier and Feuillet, 
and a console in which the celebrated Gouthiere had sur- 
passed himself. But, according to Madame Vigee Lebrun, 
the finest ornament of the room was the superb view 
which its windows commanded, embracing as it did Saints- 
Germain, Le Vesinet, Saint-Denis, the Seine in all its 
windings, and, in the misty distance, Paris. 

Of the two smaller salons, that on the right, the ceiling, 
of which had been painted by Restout and the dessus-de- 
portes by Drouais, contained four magnificent pictures by 
Vien, symbolical of " the progress of love in the heart of 
young girls," and two little marble figures from the chisel 
of Vasse, one an Amour > the other representing Folly with 
a mask in his hand ; that on the left was adorned with 
mirrors, which reflected a superb mantelpiece of lapis 
lazuli. On the ceiling Briard had painted an allegory of 
love in the country. 2 

water-colour by Moreau le jeune, now in the Louvre, of which we shall 
presently speak. The arms which Madame du Barry had invented for 
the mythical Vaubernier were a chevron, a hand, and two roses. 

1 Fragonard was also commissioned to paint four panels for this room, 
but they did not take their place upon the walls for which they were 
destined, the reason being, according to the writer of an interesting 
article in the " New York Critic" (November 1901), that the artist had 
been a shade too explicit in the matter of portraiture. " Louis XV. 
resented being painted even as a young and fanciful shepherd in company 
with the favourite. The royal sybarite refused to sanction any record of 
his profligacy, and Fragonard's idyl, which traced in such persuasive 
accents the love of King and courtesan, was supplanted by decorations in 
no way comparable to this dream of youthful tenderness." These 
panels are now in the possession of Mr. Pierpont Morgan. 

2 Dulaure's Nouvelle 'Description des environs de Paris (Paris, 1786), ii. 

198 



MADAME DU BARRY 

" Nothing could be more rich, nothing more gorgeous, 
than the furniture and decorations of the interior," says a 
contemporary writer ; " the tables, the chimney-pieces, the 
locks, the window-fastenings, &c, all are of exquisite 
finish and excessive delicacy." The chronicler, however, 
blames this excess of richness and elegance as being in bad 
taste. " It is neither richness nor delicate workmanship 
which constitute beauty ; it is the art of giving to each 
object the character which belongs to it." 1 

Outside the pavilion were two marble figures, the work 
of the sculptor Allegrain ; one representing Diana pursued 
by Actaeon, the other a bather — a woman — emerging from 
the water. The head of Diana reproduced very plainly 
the features of Madame du Barry. 

The Louvre possesses a beautiful water-colour by 
Moreau le jeune, representing a fete given by Madame 
du Barry to Louis XV. at Louveciennes, on December 27, 
1 77 1, probably for the inauguration of the new pavilion. 
The drawing is thus admirably described by M. Vatel : 

" We are in the grand dining-room of the pavilion, 
recognisable by its tribunes and the four groups of women 
by Lecomte and Pajou, only one sees that the horns of 
plenty that they hold are utilised to serve as torches. 
Above is an Olympian ceiling, which recalls to mind the 
Salon d'Hercule at Versailles ; below a square porch in 
black and white marble. A dazzling clearness, rendered 
by the painter with consummate art, pervades the whole 
room. The lustres of Gouthiere blaze like the lights in 
a picture of Schalken ; everything breathes a festal air. 

if, et seq. E. and J. de Goncourt's La Du Barry, p. 130. Vatel'a 
Histoire de Madame du Barry, ii. 116, et seq. 

1 Dulaure's Nouvelfe Description des environs de Paris (Paris, 1786), 
ii. 19. 

199 



MADAME DU BARRY 

" The King sits by Madame du Barry's side, a score of 
persons are at the supper-table ; great ladies and be- 
ribboned noblemen. 

" About the table move a crowd of lackeys, carrying 
dishes or waiting upon the guests ; some of them with 
their three-cornered hats on their heads, their swords by 
their sides, their red coats and blue facings, would appear 
to be Gardes Suisses. 

" The King seems to have his own- private servants, 
attentive behind his chair. He is speaking to no one, and 
is isolated and grave in the midst of this joyous atmos- 
phere ; his hand rests nonchalantly on the table near his 
plate ; his glance is mournful ; his expressionless face is 
that of a bored man. 

" On his right is Madame du Barry, perfectly recognis- 
able. One would say that Moreau had copied or recalled 
the bust of Pajou. She wears a white or rose-coloured 
gown. We can distinguish her diamond earrings and 
the necklace which descends to her bare and opulent 
bosom. 

" Next her, some little distance away, is a great noble- 
man wearing the cordon bleu. We seem to recognise in 
him the Marechal de Richelieu, to judge by his statuette 
in the Louvre and the portrait in the Bibliotheque de 
1' Arsenal. His neighbour might be, according to a pure 
supposition on our part, the Marechale de Mirepoix ; she 
is turning round and placing something, probably sweet- 
meats, in the hand of Zamor. 1 The latter is recognisable 

1 Zamor was Madame du Barry's Indian page. Many writers call 
him a negro ; but this is incorrect, as he was a native of Bengal, who 
had been brought to France by the captain of an English ship. He was 
about seven years old when the countess took him into her service — a 
step which, as we shall see hereafter, she had bitter reason to regret. 

zoo 



MADAME DU BARRY 

by his tawny complexion, his size, and his costume. On 
his head is a white cap adorned with a plume, and he wears 
a rose-coloured coat and high black boots. Another 
personage, who is dressed in Madame du Barry's livery, 
attracts attention by the air of importance with which he 
carries in his arms a little greyhound, probably that of the 
mistress of the house. 

" We observe one of her servants approach the favourite 
with an appearance of eagerness, a dish in one hand, his 
serviette in the other ; he seems to be whispering in her 
ear, and to be informing her of some important incident 
connected with his duties. Madame du Barry listens 
attentively, and her eyes appear to be in search of 
something. 

" The elaborate supper is not an orgy ; it is a Court 
banquet, ceremoniously served, in accordance with all the 
rules of etiquette. The morganatic couple permit them- 
selves in public a familiarity which gives us an excellent 
idea of the position of a maitresse diclar&eT x 

His mistress had him taught to read and write, and, on July 4, 1772, he 
was baptized at the Church of Notre Dame at Versailles, the sponsors 
being " the High and Puissant Prince Louis Francois Joseph de Bourbon, 
Comte de la Marche, represented by his concierge, and the High and 
Puissant Dame Benedicte de Vaubergny {sic) Comtesse du Barry, 
represented by her femme-de-chambre" Zamorwas a great favourite with 
Madame du Barry and also with the old King, to whom his impish pranks 
caused great amusement. According to the Anecdotes, Louis rewarded 
his antics by appointing him Governor of the Chateau and Pavilion of 
Louveciennes, with a salary of 600 livres, and ordered Maupeou to draw 
up the brevet of the appointment and affix thereto the great seal ; but 
this, like the story of Zamor collecting cockchafers and putting them into 
the Chancellor's wig, is probably a myth. 

1 Vat el's Histoire de Madame du Barry, ii. 123, et seq. 



jof 



CHAPTER XIV 

Madame du Barry unable to obtain the almost general recogni- 
tion of her position accorded to Madame de Pompadour — 
Reasons for her want of success — Continued hostility of 
Marie Antoinette towards the favourite — Interview between 
d'Aiguillon and Mercy — The Empress Maria Theresa remon- 
strates with her daughter — Temporary change in the conduct 
of Marie Antoinette towards the favourite and d'Aiguillon — 
Gratification of the Empress — Interviews between Mercy and 
Madame du Barry, and between Mercy and Louis XV. at 
Compiegne — The Dauphiness promises to speak to the 
favourite — But is prevented by Madame Adelaide — Strong 
letter of remonstrance from Maria Theresa to the Dauphiness 
— Political importance of the conduct of Marie Antoinette — 
Intrigues in regard to the appointment of the Dauphiness's 
dame d'atours — Marie Antoinette speaks to the favourite 
— Anxiety of Maria Theresa — Complaisance of the princess 
towards Madame du Barry and d'Aiguillon facilitates the 
first Partition of Poland — Vox Impe?'atricis t Vox Dei ! — ■ 
Reception of Madame du Barry by the Dauphin and Dauphi- 
ness on New Year's Day 1773 — Diplomacy of Mercy — 
Failure of an intrigue between d'Aiguillon and Madame de 
Narbonne to secure better treatment for the favourite. 

Although Madame du Barry's influence over Louis XV. 
was, in all probability, greater than that of her predecessor 
in the King's affections, her hopes of obtaining the almost 
general recognition of her position which had been accorded 
to Madame de Pompadour, during the latter part of her 
reign, were fated never to be realised. For this there were 
several reasons. One lay, of course, in the difference 

202 



MADAME DU BARRY 

between the personalities of the two favourites. The life 
of Madame de Pompadour previous to her " elevation " 
had been irreproachable, while she was one of the most 
accomplished women of her time — a woman, indeed, who, 
had she but been born to the purple, any nation might 
have been proud to welcome as its queen. The early- 
career of Madame du Barry, as we have seen, was not one 
which would bear investigation, and, beyond her gaiety and 
good nature, she had no qualities which might serve to 
reconcile the Court to her sway. Another reason was the 
resentment aroused by the dismissal of Choiseul. Madame 
de Pompadour, it is true, had been directly responsible for 
the dismissal of half a dozen Ministers ; but neither Orry, 
Maurepas, the two d'Argensons, Machault, nor Bernis had 
had any very considerable following, and their misfortunes 
had been, in consequence, received with comparative indif- 
ference, whereas Choiseul's partisans comprised the most 
intellectual portion of the nation, and his fall was regarded 
as a public calamity. A third cause was to be found in 
the fact that, even in the few years that had elapsed since 
the death of Madame de Pompadour, the doctrines which 
were steadily undermining the whole social fabric had made 
material progress ; new ideas, new conceptions of monarchy 
and its duties, were spreading fast among all classes ; people 
were no longer inclined to regard with complacence the 
spectacle of a royal mistress squandering the public money 
upon a hundred whims and caprices. 

But it would appear to have been to a different cause 
to which Madame du Barry attributed her failure to over- 
come the hostility of an influential section of the Court, 
and to remove which all her efforts were now directed. 
This was the attitude persisted in by the young Dauphiness, 
who, in spite of the representations of Mercy, could not 

203 



MADAME DU BARRY 

be prevailed upon to accord " the most foolish and imper- 
tinent creature imaginable " the slightest mark of recogni- 
tion, and treated her and her partisans with the utmost 
disdain. 

Towards the end of June 1771, d'Aiguillon, who had 
met with a very icy reception from Marie Antoinette on 
the occasion of his presentation to her as Minister of 
Foreign Affairs, had an interview with Mercy, in which, 
after eulogising the beauty, grace, intelligence, and so 
forth of the Dauphiness, he informed the Ambassador 
that he had been commanded by the King to intimate to 
him that his Majesty had observed with annoyance " signs 
of an aversion too strongly marked towards the persons 
who composed the intimate society of the King " ; that 
not only did the princess refuse them the recognition due 
to members of the Court, but added " words of satire and 
hatred " ; that this was creating much ill-feeling, and 
destroying the tenderness of the King towards her, and 
that it was very essential that it should cease. 

Mercy hastened to express his regret and his conviction 
that the blame for the unfortunate state of affairs of which 
d'Aiguillon had spoken rested not with the princess 
herself, but with those who had dared to speak to her " of 
things she ought never to know or to see " ; hinted at the 
** pernicious counsels " of Mesdames, and assured the 
Minister that " the least tender and affectionate insinua- 
tions coming from the King " could not fail to produce 
their effect, and that he would do everything in his power 
to further his Majesty's wishes. " It is clear," he writes 
to Maria Theresa, " that the proceeding of the Due 
d'Aiguillon had been planned on the advice of Madame 
du Barry, with the intention of gradually inducing Madame 
la Dauphine to treat the favourite better." 

204. 



MADAME DU BARRY 

The Empress, who had been much alarmed by the 
evidence of Madame du Barry's influence afforded by the 
fall of Choiseul, and was very dubious as to the attitude 
of d'Aiguillon towards the Franco-Austrian alliance, and 
still more so with regard to the reception her designs 
upon Poland were likely to meet with at Versailles, lost 
no time in despatching a letter of remonstrance to her 
daughter. She informs her that she has been told that 
her reception of d'Aiguillon had left much to be desired ; 
that she held herself aloof from all his party ; that they 
were of the King's Court as well as herself ; and that she 
should submit to his Majesty's will " with the respect and 
obedience of a child." " It ought to suffice for your 
favour that the King distinguishes such or such an one 
without examining their merits." She concludes by 
warning her against Mesdames, who, " filled with virtue 
and possessing real merit, have never learned how to 
make themselves loved or respected either by their father 
or the public. Everything which is said or done in their 
circle is common knowledge, and, in the end, all will be 
laid at your door, and you alone will bear the blame." 1 

Her words, joined to the representations of Mercy, 
were not without effect. On July 24, the Ambassador 
writes from Compiegne that, on receipt of the Empress's 
letter, the princess had become very grave and thoughtful ; 
that the same evening, while playing lansquenet with the 
King and the Royal Family, she had found herself seated 
next to Madame du Barry, and had shown how highly 
she valued the Imperial advice by displaying " neither 
disgust nor temper," but, on the contrary, speaking to the 
favourite, whenever the incidents of the game required 
that she should do so, " gracefully and without affectation, 

1 Letter of July 9, 177 1. 
205 



MADAME DU BARRY 

saying neither too much nor too little." Nor was this 
all, for next day the Due d'Aiguillon, happening to 
present himself while the princess was at play, met with 
an extremely gracious reception, ''the Dauphiness speak- 
ing to him frequently with a charming air of gaiety " ; 
which condescension appears to have so astonished the 
new Minister that, consummate courtier though he was, 
he could only reply in monosyllables. 

Maria Theresa expresses her satisfaction at the good 
news in her next letter to Mercy : 

" I am very pleased that my daughter has begun to 
treat the Due d'Aiguillon better. Without entering into 
their personalities, she ought to be the same to all the 
members of the dominant party, even to the Comtesse du 
Barry, and speak to her on any unimportant matter as 
she would to every other lady whom the King admits to 
his Court ; she should even distinguish her. She ought 
to ignore what this woman is and treat her well, without 
condescending to anything unworthy." x 

And to Marie Antoinette she writes : 

" Mercy informs me that you have, on his advice, 
begun to treat the ruling party with courtesy, and have 
even addressed a few vague remarks in that direction, 
which have had a marvellous effect. I do not enlarge 
upon this matter ; Mercy is charged to speak to you 
freely ; I am only delighted that you lend yourself so 
promptly to his counsel." 2 

Madame du Barry, however, was not satisfied with 
" a few vague remarks " ; she desired a more formal 
recognition of her position from the first lady in the land, 
and had made up her mind to obtain it; and, accordingly, 
gave the King no rest until he had promised that he would 

1 Letter of August 10, 1771. 2 Letter of August 17, 1771. 

206 



MADAME DU BARRY 

himself interview Mercy, with a view to putting an end to 
the cruel humiliations which, she declared, were rendering 
her life miserable. 

"I was invited to sup with the Comtesse de Valentinois," 
writes the Ambassador, " and repaired thither with the 
Nuncio and the Sardinian Ambassador. We found there 
the Due and Duchesse d'Aiguillon, the Due de la Vrilliere, 
a dame du palais, some other ladies in the service of the 
Comtesse de Provence, 1 and the Comtesse du Barry. It 
was the first time that I had found myself in the company 
of this woman. The Sardinian Ambassador spoke to her 
first as to a person with whom he was well acquainted ; 
the Nuncio showed himself very anxious to join in the 
conversation. I thought it incumbent upon me to show 
more reserve, and it was not until the favourite had 
addressed me that I allowed myself to converse freely with 
her. I received, on her side, a more gracious reception 
than the others were accorded. I did not sit down to 
table, and the Comtesse du Barry, giving as her reason that 
she was compelled to return to her apartments before 
eleven o'clock, did not sup either. The conversation was 
interrupted by the Due d'Aiguillon, who, taking me aside, 
informed me that the King desired to speak to me in 
private, and that he had charged him to propose that, the 
following day, on his return from the chase, I should repair 
to the Comtesse du Barry's apartments, where his Majesty 
would see me. I replied without hesitation that I would 
go wherever the King required me." 

The following morning, the Dauphiness received the 
Ambassadors, and, approaching Mercy, said in a low 

1 Louise Marie Josephine of Savoy, daughter of Victor Amadeus III., 
King of Sardinia. She had been married to the Comte de Provence, 
June 14, 1771. 

207 



MADAME DU BARRY 

voice : " I felicitate you on the good company in which 
you supped on Sunday." 

" Madame," replied Mercy, " an event much more 
remarkable is going to happen to-day, and to-morrow I 
shall have the honour of rendering an account of it to 
your Royal Highness." 

That evening, at seven o'clock, the Ambassador pre- 
sented himself at the favourite's apartments in the chateau. 
D'Aiguillon came to meet him, and informed him that 
the King had just returned from hunting and was dressing, 
after which he carried off two or three persons who were pre- 
sent into an adjoining room, under the pretence of looking 
at a picture, leaving Mercy alone with Madame du Barry. 

The favourite seized the opportunity to tell the Ambas- 
sador how delighted she was that the King's idea of giving 
him audience in her apartments had afforded her an oppor- 
tunity of making his acquaintance, and that she wished to 
take advantage of it to speak to him of a painful subject 
which affected her deeply. She was not ignorant, she 
said, that, for a long time past, people had been engaged in 
endeavours to ruin her with the Dauphiness, and that, to 
effect their object, " they had had recourse to the most 
atrocious calumnies " in daring to attribute to her dis- 
respectful words concerning her Royal Highness. So 
far from having to reproach herself with a crime so 
terrible, she had always been numbered among those 
who <c justly extolled the charms of the archduchess." 
Although the princess had constantly treated her with 
severity and a kind of contempt, she had never in- 
dulged in any complaints against her Royal Highness, 
but only against those who inspired her to these marks 
of dislike, and that whenever a question had arisen 
of granting some request made by the Dauphiness, she 

208 



MADAME DU BARRY 

had used her influence with the King in the princess's 
favour. 

Mercy assured the favourite that she was under a com- 
plete misapprehension in supposing the Dauphiness capable 
of sentiments so contrary to her character, and, we may 
suppose, paid the lady many pretty compliments, which 
pleased her so much that she became quite familiar, con- 
fided to her guest some interesting details about her life, 
her plans for amusing the King, her opinion of certain 
personages of the Court, and so forth. 

The confidences were interrupted by the arrival of 
Louis XV., who entered by the private staircase between 
his apartments and those of his mistress. 

" Must I retire, Monsieur?" inquired Madame du 
Barry. 

Mercy's astonishment at hearing the most Christian 
King addressed by such an appellation was so pro- 
found that he would appear to have had some difficulty 
in persuading himself that he was not dreaming. 1 But 
his Majesty seemed to take it quite as a matter of course, 
and smilingly intimated to the favourite that he wished to 
be alone with the Ambassador, upon which the lady with- 
drew, and the King, turning to Mercy, said : " Up to the 
present you have been the Ambassador of the Empress ; 
now I beg you to be my Ambassador, at least for a 
time." Then, with much embarrassment, he began to 
speak of Marie Antoinette, declaring that he loved the 
princess with all his heart, that he found her charming, 

1 " Although I pass my life here in witnessing extraordinary things, 
I am not often able to regard them as dreams. I have seen the King in 
company with Madame du Barry ; she calls him ' Monsieur,' and treats 
him as an equal. He takes it in very good part, and, even in my 
presence, did not appear annoyed at his favourite behaving thus." — 
Jjetter of Mercy to Kaunitz, September 2, 1 771, 

209 u 



MADAME DU BARRY 

but that she was young and impressionable, and, since her 
husband was not in a position to advise her, it was impos- 
sible that she should escape the snares that intrigue laid 
for her ; that he had remarked with displeasure that she 
had conceived certain prejudices and dislikes, obviously 
the result of the evil counsels of those by whom she was 
surrounded, and that she was treating very badly certain 
persons whom he had admitted to his private circle of 
friends. " See Madame la Dauphine frequently," he con- 
cluded. " I authorise you to say to her, on my behalf, 
whatever you think necessary ; she is being given bad 
advice, and must not be allowed to follow it. You see 
what confidence I have in you, since I tell you what is 
in my mind in regard to the private life of my family." 

Mercy endeavoured to make the King comprehend that 
it would be far better, as the matter under discussion was 
of so very delicate a nature, if his Majesty would take upon 
himself the task of remonstrating with the Dauphiness. But 
Louis, as is well known, had an invincible repugnance to 
personal explanations with members of the Royal Family, 
and on the rare occasions on which he contrived to summon 
up sufficient courage to reprimand them, invariably had 
recourse to writing ; and the Ambassador, finding his re- 
presentations useless, consented to accept the commission 
offered him, and left the chateau, not altogether displeased 
at finding that he had become, in the short space of two 
days, the friend of the favourite and the confidant of the 
King. 

In accordance with his promise to Louis XV., Mercy 
lost no time in seeking an interview with Marie 
Antoinette, and pointing out to her the inconsistency of 
her attitude towards the mistress. If, said he, you wish to 
show by your behaviour that you are aware of the role 

2IO 



MADAME DU BARRY 

that Madame du Barry plays at Court, your dignity 
requires that you should request the King to forbid this 
woman to appear henceforth in your presence ; if, on the 
contrary, you wish to appear ignorant of the true position 
of the favourite, you ought to treat her as you would any 
other lady of the Court, and, when occasion offers, speak 
to her, were it only once, " which would put an end to 
all specious pretext for recriminations." Then he advised 
her to have a few minutes' conversation with the King on 
the matter, and persuaded the Abbe de Vermond to urge 
the same course upon the princess. But whatever effect 
their representations had was quickly undone by 
Mesdames ; Marie Antoinette declared that " her courage 
failed her," and all that she could be prevailed upon to 
promise was to speak once to the favourite. 

The Ambassador at once communicated this welcome 
intelligence to Madame du Barry, upon which that lady 
announced her intention of joining the circle of the 
Dauphiness on the following Sunday, and giving the 
princess an opportunity of redeeming her promise. 
Mercy hurried off to warn Marie Antoinette, who 
answered that she was prepared to keep her word, but 
insisted that he should be present. It was then arranged 
that on Sunday, at the close of the evening's card-playing, 
Mercy was to approach the favourite and engage her in 
conversation, and that the Dauphiness, in passing round 
the room, should stop and speak to him, and then, as if 
taking an opportunity, address a few words to Madame du 
Barry. Marie Antoinette declared that this was the only 
way in which she could bring herself to do what he 
wished, as she felt so afraid, and Mercy implored her to be 
firm, and strictly enjoined upon her to say nothing about 
their plan to her aunts. This the Dauphiness promised 

211 



MADAME DU BARRY 

readily enough, but broke her word, with what result we 
shall now see. 

<c In the evening," says Mercy, " I went to the 
assembly ; the Comtesse du Barry was present with her 
friends. Madame la Dauphine called me aside, and told 
me that she was frightened, but that her intentions re- 
mained unchanged. The game being at an end, her 
Royal Highness sent me to place myself beside the 
favourite, whom I engaged in conversation. In a moment 
all eyes were turned upon us. Madame la Dauphine 
began to speak to the ladies present; she reached my 
side, and was not two paces away, when Madame Adelaide, 
who had not lost sight of her for a moment, raised 
her voice and exclaimed : ' Let us go ; it is time to 
await the King at my sister Victoire's.' At these 
words Madame la Dauphine turned away, and the whole 
scheme came to nothing." 

That same evening, presumably in anticipation of vic- 
tory, all the Ambassadors, including the Papal Nuncio — 
who seems to have been one of the most assiduous of 
the favourite's courtiers, though the story of his having 
put on the lady's slippers one morning at her toilette is 
probably a myth — had been invited to supper by Madame 
du Barry. Mercy was one of those present, and was 
agreeably surprised to find that, " in spite of the little 
humiliation which she had just experienced at the hands 
of Madame la Dauphine," his fair hostess treated him 
with the utmost graciousness. He explained to d'Aiguil- 
lon, who was among the guests, what had passed that 
evening, and flattered himself that he had succeeded in 
throwing all the blame on the shoulders of Mesdames. 

Presently, the King, on his way from the Council to sup, 
with the Royal Family, came in for a moment, impatient 

212 



Madame du barry 

to learn the result of the Ambassador's little scheme, 
and, later in the evening returned, and, " having as it 
were pushed me into a corner," said, in a very confused 
manner : " Ah well ! M. de Mercy, you have seen the 
Dauphiness ? Your advice bears but little fruit ; I shall 
have to come to your help " ; and then turned away 
without giving the Ambassador time to reply. 

To any one unacquainted with Louis XV.'s character 
those words might have been understood to imply that 
he meditated a personal remonstrance with the Dauphiness 
or Mesdames. But Mercy knew that it was perfectly 
hopeless to expect anything of the kind, and that the 
monarch would probably confine the marks of his dis- 
pleasure to " sulks and silence " whenever the offending 
parties happened to approach him, and he, accordingly, 
sent an exhaustive account of the whole affair to Vienna 
and made strong representations to Marie Antoinette, 
warning her that comparisons were being made between 
her conduct and that of the Comtesse de Provence — who 
had lately made Madame du Barry supremely happy by 
speaking to her " without affectation," — and very much to 
the disadvantage of the Dauphiness. The princsss ex- 
pressed due contrition, and pleaded in extenuation her fear 
of her aunts ! 

Mercy's " humble report " to Vienna brought a strong 
letter of remonstrance from Maria Theresa to her daughter, 
so strong indeed that the Empress judged it advisable to 
ask the Ambassador to read it before handing it to the 
Dauphiness, and to return it, if he considered that the 
strictures it contained were too severe. 



213 



MADAME DU BARRY 

Maria Theresa to Marie Antoinette. 

" Schonbrunn, September 30, 1771. 

. • . "Marsy 1 has confirmed what all my letters tell me, 
namely, that you only act as your aunts direct. I esteem 
them, I love them, although they have never known how 
to make themselves either esteemed or loved by their own 
family or the public ; and you wish to follow the same 
road. This fear and embarrassment of speaking to the 
King, the best of fathers ! That of speaking to people to 
whom you are advised to speak ! Confess this embarrass- 
ment, this fear of saying a simple ' Good-morning ' ; a 
word about a dress or some other trifle costs you so many 
grimaces ! Actually grimaces, or worse ! You have 
allowed yourself to be dragged into such bondage that 
your reason and even your duty are no longer able to 
guide you. I can no longer keep silent. After the con- 
versation with Mercy and all that he impressed upon you 
that the King desired, that your duty demanded, that you 
should have dared to fail him ! What good reason can 
you allege ? None. You ought neither to know nor see 
the Barry in any other light than as a lady admitted to the 
Court and the society of the King. You are his first 
subject, you owe him obedience and submission ; you owe 
an example to the courtiers, who execute the will of your 
master. If anything degrading, any familiarities were 
required of you, neither I nor any one else would counsel 
them, but an indifferent word, certain attitudes, not for 
the sake of the lady, but for your grandfather, your master, 
your benefactor ! And you fail him so conspicuously on 
the first occasion on which you could oblige him, and 

1 The Abbe" de Marsy, a Lorrainer in the Austrian service, who had 
lately been on a visit to France. 

214 



MADAME DU BARRY 

show him your attachment ! Let us see now for what 
reason ? A shameful complaisance for people who have 
reduced you to dependence, by treating you as a child, 
procuring you rides on horseback, on donkeys, amuse- 
ments with children, with dogs. See the great reasons 
for your preference for them over your master, and which 
will render you ultimately ridiculous, unloved and un- 
esteemed. You began so well ; your judgment when not 
directed by others is always true and just. Let yourself 
be guided by Mercy ; what happiness could either he or 
I have except your own happiness and the good of the 
State ? Free yourself from these false ideas ; it is for you, 
after the King, to lead, and not to be led away like a child 
when you wish to speak. You are afraid to speak to the 
King, but you are not afraid to disobey and disoblige him. 
I fear that, for a short time, I must permit you to avoid 
verbal explanations with him ; but I insist that you con- 
vince him by all your actions of your respect and affection. 
... I have detained the courier until the first day of the 
month, and I cannot conceal from you that I was so over- 
whelmed by the news that he brought me that I needed 
time to recover. I do not demand that you should break 
with the company that you frequent ; God forbid ! But I 
wish you to take counsel of Mercy in preference to them, 
to see him more frequently, to speak to him of everything, 
and to communicate nothing that he says to you to others. 
Too much complaisance savours of degradation and weak- 
ness ; you must know how to play your own part if you 
wished to be esteemed. If you suffer yourself to be dis- 
couraged, I foresee great troubles for you, nothing but 
mischief-making and petty intrigues, which will render 
your life miserable. I desire to warn you of this ; I 
conjure you to believe the advice of a mother who knows 

215 



MADAME DU BARRY 

the world and idolises her children, and desires only to 
pass her last sad days in being of use to them. I embrace 
you tenderly ; do not think me offended, but touched and 
occupied with your welfare." 

The vigorous language in which Maria Theresa 
addresses her daughter in the aforegoing letter was 
dictated by more weighty consideration than the young 
princess's personal welfare. The seizure of Zips by 
Austrian troops the previous year had been followed by 
further aggressions in Poland, and Kaunitz was now 
actively negotiating with Frederick the Great and the 
Czarina Catherine for a share of that unhappy country. 
Sorely against her will had the Empress-Queen been 
brought to acquiesce in the participation of Austria in 
this iniquitous deed, 1 but having once consented, her 
scruples were laid aside, and all her energies henceforth 
devoted to making the best possible bargain with her 
fellow robbers and overcoming the opposition of the 
French Court. 

That exhausted and ill-governed France would attempt 
armed intervention between the Eastern Powers and their 
prey was, of course, out of the question ; but, on the 

1 " When all my lands were invaded, and I knew not where in the 
world I should find a place to be brought to bed in, I relied on my 
good right and the help of God. But in this thing, where not only 
public law cries to Heaven against us, but also natural justice and sound 
reason, I must confess never in my life to have been in such trouble, and 
am ashamed to show my face. Let the Prince (Kaunitz) consider what 
an example we are giving to all the world, if, for a miserable piece of 
Poland, or Moldavia, or Wallachia, we throw our honour and reputation 
to the winds. I see well that I am alone, and no more in vigour ; 
therefore I must, though to my very great sorrow, let things take their 
course." — Letter of Maria Theresa to Kaunitz (undated), cited in 
Carlyle's " Frederick the Great," x. 34. 

Si6 



MADAME DU BARRY 

other hand, there was every likelihood that she might take 
serious umbrage at the policy pursued by Austria, with 
the result that the alliance to which Maria Theresa looked 
for support against the steadily increasing power of 
Prussia might be strained to breaking point. Hence it 
was, above all things, necessary to maintain the best 
possible personal relations with Louis XV. ; hence her 
indignation and alarm at the impolitic conduct of her 
daughter. 

Marie Antoinette's repugnance to make even the 
smallest concession to the feelings of Madame du Barry 
was not lessened by the persistent attempts of the favourite's 
partisans to control the appointments in the princess's 
Household. In the autumn of that year the Dauphiness's 
dame d'atours, the Duchesse de Villars, fell dangerously 
ill, the doctors who attended her pronounced her re- 
covery hopeless, and the question of her successor at 
once began to agitate the minds of the intriguers of the 
Court. Such an opportunity of establishing a spy of his 
own about the person of the princess seemed too good to 
be lost, and the Due de la Vauguyon forthwith determined 
to secure the post for his daughter-in-law, Madame de 
Saint- Megrin. Prompted by him, the poor Duchesse de 
Villars thereupon wrote a letter to the Dauphin reminding 
him that the survivorship to the office in question had 
been promised to Madame de Saint-Megrin by the late 
Dauphiness, and begging him to use his influence with 
the King to secure the nomination of that lady. The 
Dauphin had by this time contrived to overcome the awe 
with which he had once regarded the Due de la Vauguyon, 
and was no longer submissive to his will. But he had 
an intense veneration for his mother's memory, and 

217 



MADAME DU BARRY 

accordingly, without saying a word to Marie Antoinette, 
wrote to the King, soliciting the coveted appointment for 
Madame de Saint-Megrin. Almost at the same moment, 
Louis received a letter from the Dauphiness protesting 
against the proposed nomination, a rumour of which had 
just reached her, and asking that the place might be given 
to one of her own ladies. The King, anxious to keep the 
peace, refused both requests, representing that Madame 
de Saint-Megrin was too young for so important a charge, 
and that the Dauphiness was herself too young to be 
permitted to choose her dame d'atours. 

Madame de Villars died, and the Dauphiness, in terror 
lest the Comtesse de Valentinois, Madame de Mont- 
morency, or some other intimate of the favourite should 
be appointed, renewed her request that the duchess's 
successor should be chosen from her own Household. 
The King curtly refused, and expressed a hope that 
<{ his dear daughter " would receive whomever he might 
select for her with respect and submission. Finally, 
it was announced that the Duchesse de Cosse had been 
appointed. 

The Duchesse de Cosse was not one of the Du Barry 
clique, and she was a young woman of irreproachable 
virtue ; but her husband, of whom we shall have a good 
deal to say hereafter, was one of the favourite's most 
intimate friends, and it was he who had solicited the 
appointment and obliged his wife, who cared little for 
Court life and passed most of her time in Paris, to accept 
it. When Marie Antoinette received the King's letter 
informing her of his choice, she " wept with rage," and 
her aversion to Madame du Barry became, if it were 
possible, greater than ever. 

But the exigencies of the political situation were too 

218 



MADAME DU BARRY 

strong to permit the Dauphiness to indulge her prejudices 
much longer ; Maria Theresa wrote to Mercy imploring 
him to induce her daughter " to place herself on a footing 
more in conformity with the situation of affairs and my 
interests," and at length Marie Antoinette consented to 
speak to the favourite. 

On New Year's Day it was the custom for all ladies 
who had been presented to pay their respects to the Royal 
Family. " I was informed that Madame du Barry had 
decided to perform that duty," writes Mercy, " and on 
New Year's Eve had an interview with Madame la 
Dauphine, and persuaded her Royal Highness, by every 
means in my power, not to treat the favourite badly. It 
was with great difficulty that I obtained a promise to this 
effect. The essential point was that Mesdames should not 
be informed, and this, happily, was attained." On the 
following morning, Madame du Barry presented herself 
before the Dauphiness, accompanied by the Duchesse 
d'Aiguillon and the Marechale de Mirepoix. Marie 
Antoinette spoke first to the duchess, then, passing before 
Madame du Barry, " and regarding her without constraint 
or affectation," she said to her : " There are a great 
number of people at Versailles to-day." 

At these simple words the Court was in a ferment of 
excitement. In the evening, the King embraced the 
Dauphiness tenderly and overwhelmed her with demon- 
strations of affection ; the partisans of the favourite vied 
with one another in extolling the charms and virtues of 
the princess, while, on the other hand, Mesdames could 
not contain their indignation, and went so far as to accuse 
their hitherto docile pupil of treason. Under the frowns 
and spiteful remarks of her aunts, poor Marie Antoinette 
began to repent of the step she had taken. " 1 went to 

219 



MADAME DU BARRY 

the dinner of Madame l'Archiduchesse," writes Mercy, 
" When she rose from table, she said : ' I have followed 
your advice ; here is the Dauphin, who will bear witness 
to my conduct.' The prince smiled, but said nothing. 
Then Madame l'Archiduchesse related to me what had 
passed, and concluded by saying, ' I have spoken this 
once, but I am quite decided to stop there ; that woman 
shall never hear my voice again.' " 1 

However, a great point had been gained ; Marie 
Antoinette had succeeded, temporarily at least, in shaking 
off the yoke of Mesdames, and, for some time, she con- 
tinued to follow the counsels of her mother and Mercy, 
and threw no more obstacles in the path of their diplo- 
macy. And so, for the sake of a few indifferent words 
from the Dauphiness to the mistress of the King, the old 
clients of France were abandoned to their fate, and 
Austria permitted to grab her share of poor distracted 
Poland without the smallest remonstrance from Versailles. 
" We must not speak of Polish affairs before you," said 
Louis XV., smiling, to his grand-daughter one day, 
" because your relatives are not of the same opinion as 
ourselves." That was the only hint of disapproval that 
was ever known to escape him. 

That Maria Theresa was well aware that her large share 
of the "gateau des Rois " depended upon the attitude of her 
daughter towards " the lady who enjoys the confidence of 
the King " — as the Swedish Ambassador styles the favourite 
— is clearly shown by her letters to Mercy. " To 
ward off these evils " (the possible rupture of the Franco- 
Austrian alliance) " from the monarchy and the family," 
she writes, " we must employ every means possible ; and 
there is only my daughter, the Dauphiness, aided by your 
1 Mercy to Maria Theresa, January 23, 1772. 

22Q 



MADAME DU BARRY 

counsels and acquaintance with your surroundings, who 
can render this service to her family and her country. 
Above all, it is necessary that she should cultivate, by 
constant attentions and affection, the goodwill of the King, 
that she should strive to divine his wishes, that she should 
do nothing to offend him, that she should treat the favourite 
well. I do not require of her anything degrading, still 
less intimacy, but attentions due in consideration of her 
grandfather and her master, in consideration of the 
advantage which will redound to us and to the two 
Courts. 2/ may he that the alliance depends upon it I " 

The Court was at Compiegne when the Ambassador 
received this letter, and he immediately laid it before the 
Dauphiness, at the same time expatiating upon the influ- 
ence which the all-powerful favourite might be able to 
exercise upon the policy of France, and the imperative 
necessity of conciliating both her and d'Aiguillon, not 
forgetting to impress upon the princess a due sense of the 
honour which the Empress was doing her in selecting 
one so young and inexperienced to co-operate in the union 
between the two kingdoms. 

This lesson, which lasted three-quarters of an hour, was 
not lost upon Marie Antoinette, who writes to her 
mother : 

" Mercy has shown me your letter, which has much 
affected me and given me cause for thought. I will do 
my utmost to contribute to the preservation of the 
alliance. Where should I be if a rupture occurred 
between my two families ? I trust that le bon Dieu will 
preserve me from this misfortune, and inspire me with 
what I ought to do ; I have prayed to Him earnestly." 

That visit to Compiegne was in marked contrast to the 
one of the preceding year. The Dauphiness was gracious- 

2ZI 



MADAME DU BARRY 

ness itself to d'Aiguillon, actually going out of her way to 
address him, and, on more than one occasion, holding him 
in conversation for some minutes ; and the duke, who 
was just then feeling very uneasy, owing to the coldness 
of the King, who had not yet succeeded in overcoming 
his old dislike of his one-time rival, and his suspicions 
that Maupeou was engaged in intriguing against him, 
began to flatter himself that he had found a new means of 
consolidating his position. 

What was of a good deal more importance was that 
Madame du Barry also had no cause to complain of the 
princess's treatment of her. She was made happy by some 
remarks about the state of the weather, which the Dau- 
phiness let fall one day when the favourite joined her 
circle. It is true that these precious words might very 
well have been addressed to the Duchesse d'Aiguillon, who 
accompanied her friend ; but Madame du Barry chose to 
believe that they were intended for her, and retired 
enchanted to sing the praises of Madame la Dauphine 
in the ears of the gratified King. Her joy was augmented 
by finding that Marie Antoinette, importuned by Mercy, 
had begged the Dauphin to reappear at the supper-parties 
at the pavilion of the Petit Chateau, where the favourite 
did the honours ; in consequence of which the prince had 
for some time refused to attend them, much to the annoy- 
ance of the King. 

And what great results followed from these trifles, which 
seem to the historian unworthy even of passing mention : 
these conversations with d'Aiguillon, these few remarks 
about the weather, the presence of the greedy Dauphin at a 
supper, from which he very probably returned with a bad 
attack of indigestion ! The Du Barry party, which cared 
nothing for international politics, except so far as they 

zzz 



MADAME DU BARRY 

might subserve its own interests, had no longer anything 
to gain by combating the Dauphiness, and, on the other 
hand, much to lose by disobliging the Empress-Queen. 
The concessions wrung from Marie Antoinette removed 
the last obstacles in the way of the partition of Poland ; 
Austria signed the Treaties of St. Petersburg, and Ver- 
sailles remained silent. 1 

But as the difficulties in Eastern Europe disappeared, 
Marie Antoinette, doubtless being of opinion that the 
obligation to do violence to her feelings in the interests of 
the Court of Vienna was no longer so imperative, began to 
exhibit signs of restiveness which filled Mercy with alarm. 
Towards the end of October, the Court being now at 
Fontainebleau, the Ambassador went to visit Madame du 
Barry, who informed him that she proposed to pay her 
respects to the Dauphiness on the following day, and that 
she looked to him to ensure her a favourable reception. 
Mercy intimated that it would be hardly correct for him 
to open such negotiations, and that, as the countess had 
been satisfied with the manner in which she had been 
received at Compiegne, they were clearly superfluous. 
Nevertheless, the moment he quitted the apartments of 
the favourite he did not fail to hasten to Marie Antoinette, 
to prepare the princess for the ordeal before her. 

Now, it happened that, a few days earlier, the Dauphiness 
had complained bitterly to Mercy of what she considered 
a piece of intolerable impertinence on the part of Madame 
du Barry. The favourite, it appeared, had seized upon a 
piece of the chateau garden running level with the apart- 
ments of Mesdames, and caused a new pavilion to be 

1 But Paris did not ; pamphlets and satirical prints were to be seen 
everywhere, and public opinion severely blamed the apathy of the 
Government. 

223 



MADAME DU BARRY 

built there, the windows of which commanded a part of 
the grounds reserved as a private promenade for the Royal 
Family. The consequence was that the flame of the 
princess's dislike to the mistress was at this particular 
moment burning with exceptional vigour, and the Ambas- 
sador observed with trepidation " a sort of indecision " in 
the tone in which she assured him that all would be well. 

He, accordingly, determined to be present at the recep- 
tion of the favourite, and to put in an early appearance 
in order to speak a word in season before the crucial 
moment arrived ; and when the Dauphiness returned from 
Mass the following morning, she found her mentor awaiting 
her. " I have been praying earnestly," said she. " I 
prayed, * Oh, God ! if thou wishest me to speak, make 
me speak. I will act as Thou deignest to inspire me.' ' 

" I replied to Madame l'Archiduchesse," writes Mercy, 
" that the voice of her august mother was the only one 
capable of interpreting the will of God as regarded her 
conduct, and that, therefore, she was already inspired about 
what to do for the best." 

Madame du Barry duly arrived, supported by the 
Duchesse d'Aiguillon. Marie Antoinette spoke first to 
the duchess, as etiquette prescribed ; then looked in the 
direction of the countess and observed that " the weather 
had been so bad that she had been unable to go out that 
day." 

" This remark," says Mercy, " was not addressed very 
directly to any one, and either owing to the tone of voice, 
or the manner which accompanied it, the reception was not 
one of the best. Happily, M. le Dauphin was present 
and I attributed to this circumstance Madame l'Archi- 
duchesse's air of coldness and embarrassment. I repeated 
to the favourite what I had told her the previous evening, 

3554 



MADAME DU BARRY 

that chance and various incidents determined, to a greater 
or less extent, her reception ; and, finally, I succeeded in 
persuading her that in reality she had been well received. 
She confessed to me that she believed that she had remarked 
a kindly intention on the part of Madame la Dauphine, 
and that, in fact, she imagined that the presence of M. le 
Dauphin had been the obstacle to a more favourable 
demonstration. In short, up to the present, this occasion 
has passed off without comments or discontent, and that 
is a great deal more than the actual facts permitted me to 
hope for." x 

For the following New Year's Day, Mercy summoned 
to his aid all the resources of his diplomacy to ensure a 
favourable reception for Madame du Barry. Not only did 
he extract a solemn promise from Marie Antoinette to 
speak directly to the lady, but he persuaded her to exhort 
the Dauphin, " who never spoke to any one," to do like- 
wise. 

The first part of the programme exceeded the Ambas- 
sador's fondest expectations. The Dauphin received the 
favourite most graciously, bowed, smiled, and mumbled 
something which was understood to be a compliment, to 
the amazement of the courtiers and the unconcealed delight 
of the recipient. But alas ! her joy and the satisfaction of 
Mercy were but short-lived, for the Dauphiness, evidently 
thinking that she had done her duty by persuading her 
husband to civility, declined to even open her lips, and 
included in this frigid reception the favourite's friends, the 
Duchesse d'Aiguillon and the Marechale de Mirepoix. 

All Mercy's work seemed again undone ; but he rose to 
the occasion like a man, and argued that Marie Antoinette, 
in inducing the Dauphin, who feared women as he feared 
* Mercy to Maria Theresa, November 14, 1772. 

225 ? 



MADAME DU BARRY 

the small-pox, not only to smile upon, but even to speak 
to Madame du Barry, she had in reality done far more 
than if she had reserved her efforts for her own reception. 
His task was rendered the more difficult inasmuch as the 
favourite's chief adviser, Mademoiselle " Chon " du Barry, 
had already persuaded her sister-in-law that she had grave 
cause for complaint against the Dauphiness. However, 
eventually his diplomacy prevailed, and he left the lady 
under the impression that she had been rather well treated 
than otherwise. 1 

The visit of the Court to Compiegne in the following 
July was made the occasion of a very pretty little intrigue. 
Madame Adelaide, although she governed her sisters, was, 
in her turn, governed by her dame cTatours^ the Comtesse 
de Narbonne, between whom and d'Aiguillon the bitterest 
enmity had hitherto existed. D'Aiguillon, however, in the 
hope of strengthening his own position by reconciling 
Madame du Barry with the Royal Family, succeeded in 
persuading the countess that it might be to their common 
advantage to make peace and enter into an alliance. The 
countess consented, and a treaty was concluded, the terms 
of which were as follows : Madame de Narbonne's son 
was to receive the mayoralty of Bordeaux, and she herself 
was to be given an interest in the approaching renewal of 
certain monopolies. In return for these advantages, Madame 
de Narbonne was to secure better treatment of the favourite 
by Madame Adelaide, and induce that princess to use her 
influence with the Dauphin, the Dauphiness, and the rest 
of the Royal Family to persuade them to follow her 
example. 

The first part of the scheme succeeded admirably; 

1 Mercy to Maria Thereaa, January i6 s 1773. 
226 



MADAME DU BARRY 

Madame Adelaide was easily won over by her dame d'atour$ y 
in whose counsels she reposed the most implicit confi- 
dence, promised that her own treatment of the favourite 
should henceforth leave nothing to be desired, and wrote 
a letter to the King, expressing her desire to oblige him in 
everything. His Majesty, highly gratified, replied with a 
very affectionate letter, in which he intimated that the 
best way in which his daughter could oblige him would 
be by bringing the Dauphin, " who displayed a marked 
aversion for the fair sex," to show more courtesy towards 
certain ladies whom the King honoured with his friend- 
ship. 

Unfortunately, Madame Adelaide had overrated the 
prestige which she enjoyed with her relatives ; moreover, 
it was quickly discovered who was responsible for the 
amazing volte-face committed by the princess. The whole 
Royal Family were furious at the idea of one of its 
members lending herself to the sordid intrigues of her 
attendants, and its indignation so frightened poor Madame 
Adelaide that she retracted everything, and forbade 
Madame de Narbonne ever to mention the subject to 
her again. 



22? 



CHAPTER XV 

Annoyance caused to the favourite by the extortions and in- 
trigues of the " Roue " — He is ordered to retire to his estates 
— A cruel chanson — Madame du Barry secures a judicial 
separation from her husband — Kindness of the favourite 
towards her relatives — Her matrimonial projects in regard to 
the " Roue's " son, the " Vicomte " Adolphe du Barry — His 
marriage with Mademoiselle de Tournon — Cruel treatment 
of the new " viscountess " by Marie Antoinette — Marriage 
of Elie du Barry and Mademoiselle de Fumel — Conduct of 
the Dauphiness towards the latter — Madame du Barry and 
Voltaire — A charming compliment. 

The hostility of Marie Antoinette was not the only 
annoyance which Madame du Barry had to endure. The 
" Roue" as we have said elsewhere, had assisted his 
former mistress during the early days of her favour, when 
she had prudently kept her extravagance within limits, in 
confident anticipation of reaping a rich harvest at a later 
date. In this he was not disappointed. What was the 
actual amount which he succeeded in extorting from 
Madame du Barry at various times it is impossible to say, 
but, to judge from his manner of living, it must have been 
something enormous. 1 He kept a Parc-aux-Cerfs of his 

1 In December 1769 Madame du Barry asked Louis XV. for 
600,000 livres for her brother-in-law, without, however, disclosing for 
whom the money was intended. The infatuated monarch promised 
that she should have it and applied to the Comptroller-General for the 
amount. Choiseul, however, got to hear of the matter, and sent the 

228 



MADAME DU BARRY 

own ; he married the sultana of his seraglio to a chevalier 
of Saint-Louis and settled 2000 ecus a year upon her ; he 
gambled as if he had the coffers of the State behind him, 
losing on one occasion 7000 louis at a single sitting and, 
on another, when condoled with on his ill-luck, remarking 
nonchalantly : ft Do not distress yourselves, my friends ; it 
is you " (meaning the public treasury) " who will pay for 
all this." 

Nor did he confine his importunities to appeals for 
financial assistance. He harassed his hapless sister-in- 
law incessantly with advice, warnings, and plans of 
campaign, and intrigued to get confederates of his own 
appointed to important posts in the public service, once 
actually endeavouring to secure that of Comptroller- 
General for a certain Guenee de Brochau ; which, of 
course, would have meant the hand of M. du Barry in 
the Treasury. 

At length his conduct became so intolerable that he 
was recommended to pass a few months on an estate at 
l'lsle-Jourdain, which was among the gifts he had received 
from his grateful country, and departed thither in a very 
bad humour, after two or three angry scenes with his 
sister-in-law, which gave rise to the belief that he had 
composed or inspired the following chanson against the 
favourite, which had at this time a considerable vogue : 

" Drolesse ! 
Oil prends-tu done ta fierte I 

Princesse ! 
D'ou te vient ta dignite ? 
Si jamais ton teint se fane ou se pele, 
Au train 
De catin 

King proofs that the money was to go to the creditors of the Comte 
Jean, who, of course, remained unpaid. 

22$ 



MADAME DU BARRY 

Le cri du public te rappelle. 

Drolesse, &c. 
Lorsque tu vivais de la Messe 

Du moine, ton pere Gomard, 
Oue la Rancon vendoit sa graisse 

Pour joindre a ton morceau de lard ; 

Tu n'etois pas si fiere 
Et n'en valois que mieux, 
Baisse ta tete altiere, 
Du moins devant mes yeux : 
Ecoute-moi rentre en toi-meme, 

Pour eviter de plus grands maux ; 
Permets a qui t'aime, qui t'aime, 
De t'offrir encore des sabots, 

Drolesse ! 
Mon esprit est-il baisse ? 

Princesse ! 
Te souvient-il du pass£ r" 1 

The titular husband of the favourite, the ComteGuillaume, 
followed his brother's example, and addressed to his wife 
threatening letters demanding money. In July 1770, Madame 
du Barry settled upon him an annuity of 5000 livres ; but 
this seemed to Guillaume a beggarly pittance indeed for the 
consort of an uncrowned queen, and he renewed his impor- 
tunities and threats, and became, in fact, so great a nuisance 
that the lady decided to apply for a separation de corps et 
d' habitation. The case was tried before the Chatelet on 
February 24, 1772, the countess's plea being the abusive 
and threatening character of the epistles with which her 
lord was in the habit of favouring her, three of which were 
laid before the sympathetic judges. Guillaume did not 
oppose the application, his silence having apparently been 

1 Madame du Deffand sent a copy of these verses to the Duchesse de 
Choiseul, who wrote back that she found them charming and " de trh 

&3© 



MADAME DU BARRY 

secured by the promise of a further annuity of 16,600 
livres, and the separation was duly granted. Madame du 
Barry seems, however, to have been apprehensive that the 
insatiable Guillaume might be tempted to appeal against 
the sentence of the Chatelet, and, accordingly, she applied 
to the Parliament of Paris to confirm the decision pro- 
nounced in her favour, which was done by a decree of 
April 31, 1772. 1 

Like her predecessor in the post of maitresse en titre^ 
Madame du Barry was one of the kindest of relatives, and 
seems to have lost no opportunity of pushing the fortunes 
of her family. She gave her mother, the old sempstress, 
who had blossomed into the dame de Monvabe, an 
apartment in the Couvent de Sainte-Elisabeth, a carriage, a 
maison de plaisance, and a little farm at Villiers-sur-Orge 
and was in the habit of spending a day with her 
every fortnight. On Anne Becu' s death in October 
1788, she bestowed a pension of 2000 livres on her 
husband, Ranoon, "to recompense his good conduct 
towards his spouse." She also pensioned her aunt Helene, 
who called herself Madame de Quantigny, and provided for 
her four children. 2 Nor did the exactions of the " Roue'* 
and her titular husband prevent her from endeavouring to 
promote the interests of the former's son Adolphe, and 
her brother-in-law Elie, the youngest of the Du Barry 
brothers. 

1 Vatel's Histdire de Madame du Barry, ii. 139. 

3 Madame du Barry also placed with Madame de Ouantigny a little 
girl, whom she brought up with her own children. This little girl, 
who afterwards married the Marquis de Boissaison, was, according to 
d'Allonville, a daughter of the favourite " by a father unknown," but 
the statement lacks confirmation. 

231 



MADAME DU BARRY 

Adolphe du Barry, who had assumed the title of vis- 
count, although, of course, he had no more right to the 
appellation than his father and uncle Guillaumehad to that of 
count, or the still more aspiring Elie to that of marquis, 1 
had begun life as page to the King, and later had received a 
commission in the Regiment du Roi, from which, through 
his aunt's good offices, he was transferred to the Chevau- 
legers of the Guard, with the rank of mestre de camp of 
cavalry. There was also some talk of appointing him first 
equerry to the King, but this was prevented by the oppo- 
sition of the Dauphin, who, on hearing of what was intended, 
exclaimed, in the midst of a throng of courtiers, " If he 
receives that post, I will give him my boot in the face at 
the first dtbotte" 

Several attempts were made by Madame du Barry to 
arrange a grand marriage for the " viscount." First, she 
proposed Mademoiselle de Bethune, a descendant of Sully, 
the celebrated Minister of Henri IV., but the King pointed 
out to her the absurdity of such pretensions. Then she 
cast her eyes upon Mademoiselle de Saint-Andre, a natural 
daughter of Louis by Mademoiselle Murphy, of the Parc- 
aux-Cerfs, who was being educated at the Couvent de la 
Presentation, in the Rue des Postes. Mademoiselle de 
Saint-Andre's guardian, however, opposed the alliance, on 
the ground that the fruit of his Majesty's amours had the 
right to look much higher than a " Vicomte " du Barry ; 
and this appeal to Louis's vanity was successful, greatly to 
the vexation of the " Roue," who had suggested the match to 
his sister-in-law from reasons of high policy, his idea being 

1 The number of pseudo-noblemen at this period was enormous. 
The genealogist Maugard declared in 1 788 that there were in France at 
least 8000 marquises, counts, and barons, of whom only some 2000 had 
any legal right to the titles which they bore. 

232 



MADAME DU BARRY 

that, in the event of the old King's death, the fact that the 
Du Barrys had allied themselves with the Royal Family 
would hinder his successor from " yielding to the impulses 
of hatred." * 

At length, however, a wife was found for Adolphe in 
the person of a very lovely young girl, named Made- 
moiselle de Tournon, a member of a very ancient family 
of Auvergne and a connection of the Rohans, and on 
July 19, 1773, the marriage was celebrated at Saint- Roch. 

The contract, in which the favourite promised the 
happy pair a donation of 200,000 livres, 2 is of great interest, 
owing to the signatures ; indeed it is probably one of the 
most valuable collections of autographs ever got together 
on a single document. They included those of Louis XV., 
the Dauphin and Marie Antoinette, the Comte and 
Comtesse de Provence, and the three Mesdames ; beneath 
which appear the signatures of Madame du Barry, the 
" Roue" 3 Mademoiselle " Chon " du Barry, and the bride 
and bridegroom. 

It is somewhat surprising to find the signatures of Marie 
Antoinette and the Dauphin appended to the marriage 
contract of one of the hated Du Barrys, and all the more 
so in view of the chilling reception which the new 

1 Letter of Jean du Barry published in the Revue de Paris, 1836, 
vol. xxxv. 

2 The principal was never paid, probably owing to the death ot 
Louis XV. in the following year and the consequent change in the 
favourite's fortunes, but Madame du Barry continued to pay the interest 
until November 1791. 

3 Jean du Barry figures in the document under the most high- 
sounding titles ; not only is he Comte du Barry-Ceres and Governor of 
Levignac as in 1769, but in the interval he has become Vidame de 
Chaalons, Comte de l'lsle-Jourdain, Seigneur de Bellegarde, Bretz and 
half a dozen other manors, and so forth. 

233 



MADAME DU BARRY 

" viscountess " received on the occasion of her presentation 
to them at Compiegne, a few days later. 

The favourite, accompanied by the Duchesse de Laval 
and the Comtesse de Montmorency, presented her niece 
to the King, after which, followed by an immense crowd, 
the ladies proceeded to the apartments of the Dauphin. 
At the moment of their entry, the prince was standing in 
the embrasure of a window, talking to one of his suite and 
drumming with his fingers on the glass. When the usher 
announced the approach of the ladies, the Dauphin turned 
his head, pretended not to see the unfortunate presentee or 
her sponsor, and resumed his conversation and his drum- 
ming on the window-pane. As for Marie Antoinette, she 
coldly returned the ladies' reverences, but did not speak to 
either of them. 

It was the same in the evening at the Dauphiness's 
card-table, and at her toilette the next morning, at which 
etiquette required that newly-presented ladies should make 
their appearance ; on neither occasion did the princess 
address a single word to the viscountess. Not content 
with these tokens of her displeasure, she refused to allow her 
to accompany her to the chase in the Royal carriages, and 
gave strict injunctions to her dame d'honneur, the Comtesse 
de Noailles, that she was not to be invited to her balls. 

Marie Antoinette's cruel treatment of this innocent girl, 
whose only fault was her connection with the favourite, 
seems to have been the outcome of a malicious slander. 
It was reported to the princess that Madame du Barry, 
fearing that the King's affection for her was on the wane, 
intended to exploit the beauty of her niece, in order to 
retain the royal favour in the family. There does not 
appear to have been the slightest ground for this accusa- 
tion beyond the fact that the young lady bore some 

^34 



MADAME DU BARRY 

resemblance to Madame de Chateauroux ; but it served 
its purpose, and the poor Vicomtesse Adolphe had to 
submit all day to the covert sneers and ironical smiles of 
the women of the Court, few of whom could compare with 
her in grace or beauty, and on that account were the 
more pitiless. 

Having secured a wife for her nephew, Madame du Barry 
turned her attention to her brother-in-law, the u Marquis " 
Elie, for whom, in the following October, she arranged 
a marriage with a Mademoiselle de Fumel, daughter of the 
Marquis de Fumel, obtaining for the bridegroom the 
colonelcy of the Regiment de la Reine, and for the bride 
the post of dame de compagnie to the Comtesse d'Artois. 1 

There were now three ladies of the name of Du Barry at 
Court — the marchioness, the countess, and the viscountess 
— which resulted in considerable confusion, and contem- 
porary chroniclers not infrequently mistake one Madame 
du Barry for another. 

The new member of the favourite's family met with 
much the same reception from the Dauphiness as the wife 
of Adolphe had been accorded, in consequence of which 
half the Court affected to ignore her existence, and she 
was plunged in the depths of despair. After a while, 
however, Marie Antoinette, touched with compassion for 
the unhappy lady, yielded to the entreaties of Mercy, 
and, notwithstanding the fierce opposition of Mesdames, 
"showed one day that she perceived the marchioness's 
presence ; " but towards the poor Vicomtesse Adolphe she 
remained implacable. 

1 Marie Therese of Savoy, younger sister of the Comtesse de Provence, 
married to the Comte d'Artois, November 1773. 



235 



MADAME DU BARRY 

In the autumn of 1773, Madame du Barry received 
a compliment which must have gone far to console her 
for the mordant verses which so delighted Madame de 
Choiseul. The financier La Borde, first Groom of the 
Chamber to the King, having occasion to visit Geneva, 
was commissioned by the favourite to call upon Voltaire 
at Ferney, and bestow upon the philosopher, on her 
behalf, a kiss on either cheek. The commission was duly 
executed, and appears to have greatly delighted the re- 
cipient of the kisses, ever susceptible to flattery, no matter 
from what source it came, who hastened to express his 
gratification in the following letter : 

" Madame, — M. de la Borde informs me that you 
have instructed him to kiss me on both cheeks, on your 
behalf. 

" Quoi ! deux baisers sur la fin de ma vie ! 
Ouelle passeport vous daignez m'envoyer ! 
Dieux ! e'en est trop, adorable Egerie : 
Je serais mort de plaisir au premier. 

" He has shown me your portrait. Do not be offended, 
Madame, if I take the liberty of bestowing upon it the 
two kisses : 

" Vous ne pouvez empecher cet hommage, 
Faible tribut de quiconque a des yeux : 
C'est aux mortels d'adorer votre image ; 
L'original etait fait pour les Dieux. 

" I have heard several selections from Pandore, from 
M. de la Borde 1 ; they appear to me worthy of your 
protection. The favour shown to real talent is the only 
thing that can augment the eclat with which you shine. 

1 La Borde had composed the music to Voltaire's opera of Pandore, 

336 



MADAME DU BARRY 

Deign, Madame, to accept the homage of an old hermit, 
whose heart knows hardly any other sentiment than that 
of gratitude." 

Voltaire's charming verses soon became public property, 
as it is highly probable that the poet intended they should 
be, and are to be found in the Almanack des Muses for 
1774, the " Correspondence " of Grimm, and the works 
of several contemporary chroniclers. Madame de Choiseul 
duly received a version of them from Madame du Deffand, 
but, needless to observe, did not find them " de tres bon 
gout" and replied that " Voltaire had sullied his pen in 
his old age." 



*37 



CHAPTER XVI 

Attempts to supplant Madame du Barry in the affections of 
Louis XV. — Madame Pater — A jealous husband — Madame 
Pater aspires to the role of Madame de Maintenon — The 
King gives her apartments in the Chateau of Meudon — In- 
trigues of Madame Louise, the Carmelite, for Louis XV.'s 
remarriage — Alarm of Madame du Barry — Unfounded 
rumours of the approaching disgrace of the favourite — Madame 
du Barry endeavours to conciliate the Dauphiness by a present 
of a pair of diamond earrings — Theveneau de Morande — Le 
Gazetier cuirasse — Memolres secrets <fune fille pub H que — The 
extradition of the author refused by the English Government 
• — Failure of an attempt to capture him — Beaumarchais sent to 
England to negotiate with Morande for the suppression of his 
book — Terms. 

The heart of Louis XV., though not difficult to sub- 
jugate, was, for the same reason, far from easy to retain ; 
and Madame du Barry, like her predecessors in her 
exalted office, was called upon to exercise unceasing vigi- 
lance in order to safeguard her conquest. 

In 1 77 1, Hardy speaks of an intrigue designed to 
supplant the countess by the Frincesse de Monaco, the 
mistress of the Prince de Conde, or, in default of her, by 
an English lady, a Miss Smith, and also of a third candi- 
date whose name had not been disclosed. A little later, 
it appears that a Madame Beche, the wife of one of the 
royal musicians, aroused momentary alarm in the camp of 
the favourite, and to her succeeded Madame d'Amerval, a 

238 



MADAME DU BARRY 

natural daughter of the Abbe Terray. The King is also 
said to have cast a favourable eye upon several queens of 
comedy, among them Mademoiselle Raucourt and the 
mother of Mademoiselle Mars ; but this charge rests 
upon very untrustworthy evidence. 

The only one of the aspirants to the royal heart, how- 
ever, about whom we possess any details is a Madame 
Pater, a Dutch lady of good family, 1 who had married a 
wealthy East Indian merchant. 

Madame Pater first visited Paris in 1763, where, we are 
told, her beauty, joined to a lively wit, 2 excited so much 
admiration that, on the days on which she received, a 
veritable procession of adorers, " ranging from the Prince 
de Conde to the most insignificant gentleman of the 
Court," might be seen wending its way towards her house, 
in the Faubourg Saint-Honore. The lady, however, had 
the misfortune to be afflicted with an exceedingly jealous 
husband, who had the bad taste to take umbrage at the 
universal tribute accorded to Madame's charms. For a 
while he nursed his wrath in silence, but at length he 
could contain his feelings no longer. Accordingly, one 
day, when the Prince de Conde and several other distin- 
guished admirers were taking their leave, he accompanied 
them to the door and observed : " I am very sensible, 
Messieurs, of the honour that you do me in visiting my 

1 She was the eldest of the six daughters of Baron de Newkerke of 
Nyvenheim. 

2 One evening, Madame Pater was playing whist, when two ladies, 
both of whom were bitterly jealous of her charms, established themselves 
behind her chair, and proceeded to dissect her character in stage 
whispers. Madame Pater pretended not to hear, until presently her 
partner inquired if she had any "honours," upon which she glanced 
round at her rivals and replied : "I do not know whether these ladies 
have left me any," 

239 



MADAME DU BARRY 

house ; though I do not believe that you can find much 
diversion here ; je suis toute la journee avec Madame Pater y 
et la nuitje couche avec elle." 

After this very plain hint the Prince de Conde, who 
preferred easier conquests, retired from the field, and the 
stream of callers sensibly diminished ; but by this time 
the fame of the lady's beauty had reached the ears of the 
King, who sent the Prince de Soubise to invite Madame 
Pater to sup with his Majesty at Versailles. The invita- 
tion would, no doubt, have been accepted, had the decision 
rested with the lady, in which case it is not improbable 
that Jeanne Becu would never have attained the " sunlit 
heights." But Monsieur Pater, learning what was in the 
wind, took alarm, and straightway carried off his wife to 
Holland, much to the chagrin of the King. 1 

Ten years elapsed ere Madame Pater returned to the 
scene of her triumphs. In the interval, she had contrived 
to secure a separation from the jealous husband, and had 
taken the name of Baronne de Newkerke. On this 
occasion she aspired to an important role. Encouraged 
by the Due de Duras, who is said to have been acting 
under instructions from the exile of Chanteloup, she laid 
determined siege to the heart of the King ; but her 
ambition soared much higher than the post of maitresse en 
litre : she had determined to follow in the footsteps of 
Madame de Maintenon. 

Madame Pater's dream of greatness was fated never to 
be realised, but the conduct of the King must certainly 
have afforded her good reason to hope for success. He 
paid her the most marked attention, gave her a handsome 
pension, and installed her in a suite of apartments on the 

1 Comte Fleury's Louis XV. intime : Les petites mattresses, p. 297, 
et seq. Manuel's La Police de Paris dhoilee, ii. passim. 

240 



MADAME DU BARRY 

rez-de-chaussh of the Chateau of Meudon, where she 
appears to have divided her time between ghostly confer- 
ences with a fashionable abb£ — she had abjured the 
Protestant faith and been received into the Catholic 
Church, by the cur6 of Saint-Eustache, in order to further 
her designs — and taking lessons in dancing and deport- 
ment from Despreaux, of the Opera. 

The latter, who declares that she was the most beautiful 
woman that he had ever seen, has left us some interesting 
details about Madame Pater's life at Meudon. He says 
that every Sunday she dined in the grand vestibule, and 
afterwards held a sort of Court, which was attended by the 
governor and all the officials of the chateau, who treated 
her with the most profound respect ; that occasionally, 
wearing a mask and leaning on the actor's arm, she conde- 
scended to take a promenade in Meudon, " in the midst of 
a great crowd" ; and that the Prince de Lambesc, son of the 
Comte de Brionne, grand ecuyer de France, " loved her to 
madness and offered her his hand and heart " ; but that al] 
she would accept from him was a carriage and six horses 
from the royal stables. 1 

When Louis XV. was seized with his last illness, Madame 
Pater hastened to Versailles and remained there until the 
death of the King, apparently in anticipation that, in the 
event of his recovery, he would fall an easy victim to her 
persuasions. 

After the fatal termination of the King's illness had 

destroyed her hopes, she consoled herself by marrying the 

Marquis de Champcenetz, Governor of the Tuileries, and 

became one of the leaders of the fashionable world. At 

the beginning of the Revolution she emigrated, but returned 

during the Directory, and, for some time, appears to have 

1 Souvenirs de "Jeanne Etienne Despreaux, p. i o et seq. 

241 Q 



MADAME DU BARRY 

taken an active share in Royalist intrigues. In one of these 
she was eventually detected, and exiled by Bonaparte. She 
died in Holland in 1806. 

At the time that Madame Pater was indulging in her 
fond dreams at Meudon, a general impression appears to 
have prevailed in well-informed circles that Louis XV. 
would sooner or later seek repose of conscience — to 
borrow Mercy's phrase — by a second marriage. This 
belief was due, in a great measure, to the surprising 
influence which Madame Louise, the Carmelite, had lately- 
acquired over her royal father. By a singular paradox, 
the princess in question, who, so long as she was at Court, 
had enjoyed not the least credit, had, since her retire- 
ment from the world, become a force to be reckoned 
with. The King paid her frequent visits, and was 
reported to be deeply moved by her exhortations to 
repentance. 

Urged on by Christophe de Beaumont, the Archbishop 
of Paris, and the Chancellor, who believed that he detected 
in the King signs of remorse, and had decided that it might 
be more advisable for him to be on the side of the confessor 
than on that of the mistress, Madame Louise returned to the 
project of Louis's marriage with the Archduchess Elizabeth 
of Austria, which had never been wholly abandoned, and 
when her father demurred to this, suggested that perhaps 
the widowed Princesse de Lamballe might serve equally 
well. 

Madame du Barry became seriously alarmed, and one 
day, when the King was on the point of starting for Saint- 
Denis to visit his daughter, threw herself at his feet, told 
him that she knew that her disgrace was decided upon, and 
that she would prefer to receive her dismissal from his own 

242 



MADAME DU BARRY 

lips than to suffer the humiliation of receiving it from the 
base cabal which was conspiring to ruin her. 1 

The project of the King's remarriage came to nothing, 
but the influence of the royal Carmelite over her father 
seemed to increase as Louis grew older, and towards the 
end of the year 1773 rumours of the favourite's approach- 
ing fall were rife. They were, however, without founda- 
tion, and the King, learning what was reported, took an 
early opportunity of disproving it. On November 16, 
the marriage of the Comte d'Artois to Maria Theresa of 
Savoy, younger sister of the Comtesse de Provence, was 
celebrated. The ceremony was preceded by a banquet, 
which was understood to be confined to the Royal Family 
and Princes and Princesses of the Blood. To the general 
astonishment, however, Madame du Barry appeared, 
"radiant as the sun, and wearing five million livres 
worth of jewels on her person." A place was reserved 
for her immediately opposite the King, and it was 
remarked that throughout the repast she seemed to have 

1 If we are to believe that amusing work, Les Fastes de Louts XV. , 
Madame du Barry's friends advised her to persuade the Pope to annul 
her marriage with Guillaume du Barry, in order that she might herself 
be in a position to marry the King, and Terray drew up for her a 
petition to the Vatican, which, briefly put, was as follows : 

" Madame du Barry represents to his Holiness that, having but little 
knowledge of canonical rules, she was unaware at the time of the celebra- 
tion of her marriage with the Comte Guillaume du Barry that it was 
not permissible to espouse the brother of a man with whom one had 
lived. She avows, with all the grief of a repentant soul, that she had had 
a weakness for the Comte Jean du Barry, her husband's brother ; that 
she had been, happily, warned in time of the incest she was about to 
commit, and that her enlightened conscience did not permit her to live 
with her new husband ; that thus the crime had not yet been committed ; 
and she implores his Holiness to consent to free her from an alliance so 
scandalous." 

243 



MADAME DU BARRY 

eyes for no one but his Majesty, who, in return, bent 
upon her many affectionate glances, " et lui faisoit des mines 
remarquables" " It is believed," continues the chronicler, 
" that his Majesty was very pleased to thus give a denial 
to the rumours concerning the disgrace of this lady which 
were going about, while she evinced no less plainly her 
gratitude and profound respect." 1 

At the beginning of the year 1774, the last ot her 
favour, Madame du Barry, encouraged by the fact that 
Marie Antoinette had of late " abstained from mortifying 
remarks " in reference to the countess, made another 
attempt to overcome the hostility of the Dauphiness. A 
jeweller in Paris was offering for sale a pair of magnificent 
earrings, " formed of four diamonds of extraordinary size 
and beauty," and valued at 700,000 livres. Aware of the 
princess's passion for jewellery, the favourite persuaded 
the Comte de Noailles to bring these earrings to the 
notice of Marie Antoinette and to say that " if her Royal 
Highness found them to her taste, she need not trouble 
herself about the price or the payment, as means would be 
found to persuade the King to make her a present of 
them." 

In vain was the net spread ; Marie Antoinette replied 
simply that she had enough diamonds, and had no desire 
to increase her collection. 

Madame du Barry, unlike Madame de Pompadour, was 
not thin-skinned, and cared little or nothing for the libels 
and lampoons wherewith her enemies assailed her. The 
story goes that on one occasion the Lieutenant of Police 
came to her and said : " Madame, we have just caught a 
rascal who has composed a scandalous song about you. 

1 Nouvelles a la main de la tnaison d'Harcourt, cited by M. Vatel. 

244. 



MADAME DU BARRY 

What are we to do with him ? " " Make him sing it, and 
then give him something to eat," answered the good- 
natured favourite, laughing. However, there is a limit 
even to the patience of the saintliest monk, as the long- 
suffering Major of the Bastille observed when he had that 
egregious impostor, M. Latude, under his care ; and, in 
the case of Madame du Barry, this was reached in the 
early weeks of 1774. 

There happened to be living in London at this time an 
adventurer from Burgundy named Theveneau de Mor- 
ande, who, having got into trouble in his own country, 
had taken refuge in England. Here he found himself 
entirely without resources, but, being possessed of a lively 
imagination, a facile pen, and boundless impudence, soon 
hit upon a highly remunerative mode of earning a liveli- 
hood. This was to compose gross and scandalous libels 
about persons of exalted station, which were printed in 
England and Holland, and introduced clandestinely into 
France. Among other works, he had published, under the 
title of Le Gazetier cuirassi (The Journalist in Armour), 
ou Anecdotes scandaleuses de la Cour de France^ a collection 
of the most atrocious stories, which inspired such con- 
sternation among his victims that many, including the 
Marquis de Marigny, Madame de Pompadour's brother, 
hastened to send money across the Channel, in order to 
secure immunity from further attacks. 

Encouraged by his success, M. de Morande determined 
to fly at still higher game. Accordingly, he wrote to 
Madame du Barry, enclosing the prospectus of a forth- 
coming work, in four octavo volumes, founded upon her 
life, and bearing the piquant title of Memoires secrets d^une 
femme publique, ou Essai sur les aventures de madame la 
comtesse Dub***, depuis son. berceau jusarfau lit d'honneur, 

245 



MADAME DU BARRY 

The author intimated that if the subject of his biography 
preferred that the work should not appear, he would be 
willing to enter into negotiations for the sale of the 
copyright. 

The unfortunate favourite, who had already been out- 
rageously libelled in Le Gazetier cuirasse, wherein it was 
asserted, among other charges, that she had founded a new 
Order at Court, to which only those women were to be 
admitted who had bestowed their favours on at least ten 
different men, was greatly alarmed, and hurried off to con- 
sult the King and d'Aiguillon, who applied to the English 
Government for Morande's extradition. 

The English Government answered that it was impos- 
sible for them to comply with such a demand, as Morande's 
offence was not one which came within the scope of the 
extradition treaty ; but, inasmuch as the person in ques- 
tion was " a pest to society and a plague to mankind," 
they would offer not the slightest objection to his seizure 
and removal to France, provided that it could be done 
secretly and in such a way as not to wound the suscep- 
tibilities of the English public. 

The French Ministry thereupon sent a brigade of police- 
agents to London, with orders to capture Morande and 
restore him to his native land, where the darkest cell and 
the heaviest irons to be found in Galbanon awaited him. 
But Morande was prepared for them. He had received 
timely warning of the expedition against him from a con- 
federate in Paris, and had denounced it in the London 
journals, at the same time giving himself out as a political 
exile, whom his persecutors dared to follow even on to the 
sacred soil of liberty, thus violating the generous hospi- 
tality which the English people never failed to extend to 
the unfortunate of all nationalities. 

246 



MADAME DU BARRY 

This ingenious appeal for public sympathy was not made 
in vain ; and when the French police-agents arrived in 
London, they had no need to search for their prey ; for he 
was waiting to receive them, at the head of an infuriated 
mob, which fell upon them and would have thrown them 
into the Thames, had they not prudently sought safety in 
flight. 

After this fiasco, the French Government had recourse to 
negotiations, and sent over two ambassadors, named Bel- 
langer and Preaudeau de Chenilly, to treat with Morande. 
The latter, however, refused to receive them, posed before 
the English people in the character of an avenger of public 
morality, and hastened on the publication of his work. 

Three thousand copies of the book had been printed 
and were on the point of being despatched to Holland 
and Germany, to be afterwards circulated throughout 
France, and Madame du Barry and Louis XV. were in 
despair, when La Borde, the King's valet-de-chambre^ sug- 
gested to his master to send over Beaumarchais, whose 
masterly conduct of his lawsuit against Goezman had 
excited general admiration, though it had ruined him in 
fortune and credit. 

The famous dramatist was ready enough to embrace 
such an opportunity of reinstating himself in the good 
graces of the King, and in March set out for London, 
under the name of Ronac, an anagram of his patronymic 
of Caron, to treat with the "Journalist in Armour" for 
the sale and suppression of the Memoires secrets. 

More fortunate than MM. Bellanger and de Chenilly, 
he succeeded in obtaining an interview with Morande, 
who gave him a copy of his book and the manuscript 
of another libel, with which he intended to follow it up, 
and promised to suspend publication while Beaumarchais 

247 



MADAME DU BARRY 

returned to Versailles to lay his demands before the 
King. 

After a good deal of haggling a bargain was struck, 
whereby M. Morande was to suppress his work and abstain 
from further attacks upon the reputation of Madame du 
Barry, and the French Government were to pay him 
20,000 livres in cash and a pension of 4000 livres, half 
of which sum was to revert to his wife — " a respectable 
Englishwoman, whom he treated abominably " — in the 
event of his death. 1 

The manuscript and the 3000 copies of the Mimoires 
secrets were then burned by Beaumarchais and Morande 
in an oven in the suburbs of London, and the dramatist 
returned to France to receive the reward of his successful 
diplomacy. But alas ! there was no reward forthcoming, 
not even poor Beaumarchais's expenses ; for when he 
reached Versailles, Louis XV. lay on his death-bed. 2 

1 Some writers assert that the pension was revoked in the succeeding 
reign, Louis XVI. refusing to be bound by the acts of his grandfather. 
This, however, is an error. Morande's pension was an annuity duly 
secured, and all that the French Government did was to commute a 
portion of it at the recipient's own request. 

2 Lomenie's Beaumarchais et ton temps, i. 376,^/ seq. Dutens' Mimoires 
d'un voyageur qui se repose, ii. 39. 



CHAPTER XVII 

Louis XV. in failing health — His incurable melancholy — His 
religious terrors aroused by the outspoken sermons of the 
Abbe de Beauvais and the Abbe Rousseau — He falls ill at the 
Little Trianon — La Martiniere, his First Surgeon, persuades 
him to remove to Versailles — Failure of the doctors who 
attend him to diagnose the disease — Alarm of the Du Barry 
party — The King declared to be suffering from small-pox — 
The doctors decide not to inform him of the nature of his 
illness — Feeling at the Court and in Paris — Intrigues of the 
favourite and her friends to prevent the Archbishop of Paris 
speaking of confession to the King — Visit of the archbishop 
— Diplomacy of the Grand Almoner, the Cardinal de la 
Roche-Aymon — Louis ascertains that he is suffering from 
small-pox — " Madame, we must part " — Madame du Barry is 
sent to Rueil — A disgraceful scene — The Abbe Maudoux, the 
King's confessor, refuses absolution until the favourite is sent 
farther away — But eventually yields — Administration of the 
Viaticum — Declaration of repentance — Death of Louis XV. — 
His funeral. 

Louis XV. was growing old ; slowly but surely his con- 
stitution, undermined by long years of debauchery, was 
breaking up. He had become obese and unwieldy ; to get 
him on to his horse or into his carriage was now " quite an 
affair of State " ; his digestive organs were impaired ; he 
was compelled to dilute his wine with Vichy water, and his 
petits soupers had become Barmecide feasts, so far as he 
himself was concerned. " I see that I am no longer young, 
and that I must put on the drag," said he one day to 

249 



MADAME DU BARRY 

La Martiniere, his First Surgeon. " Sire," was the 
answer, " it would be wiser for you to unharness the 
horses." 

And, with the decline of his physical powers, the King's 
mental faculties were failing too. His fits of ennui — a 
malady from which nearly all the Bourbons suffered to a 
greater or less degree — were becoming more frequent and 
more prolonged, and taxing all the ingenuity of Madame 
du Barry to combat successfully. In his correspondence 
with Maria Theresa, Mercy frequently refers to this 
incurable melancholy of Louis XV. : " The King is grow- 
ing old, and from time to time seems to have regrets. 
He finds himself isolated, without aid or consolation from 
his children, without zeal, attachment, or fidelity from the 
bizarre assemblage composing his Ministry, his society, 
his surroundings." l And again : " From time to time 
the King begins to make remarks concerning his age, his 
health, and the frightful account that must one day be 
rendered to the Supreme Being for our employment of 
the life He has accorded to us in this world. These 
reflections, occasioned by the death of some persons of his 
own age, who died almost before his eyes, 2 have greatly 
alarmed those who retain the monarch in his present errors, 
and from that moment everybody has thought it his duty 
to conceal such events so far as possible." 3 

The King's conscience, in short, was beginning to awaken; 
Holy Week, a period always dreaded by his mistresses, was 

1 Letter of August 14, 1773. 

2 In November 1773, at one of the petits soupers, the Marquis de 
Chauvelin fell dead actually at Louis' feet; shortly afterwards, the 
Abbe de la Ville, to whom the King was giving audience, was seized 
with a fatal attack of apoplexy ; and the Genoese Ambassador, Sorba, 
also died in a terribly sudden manner. 

3 Letter of February 19, 1774. 

250 



MADAME DU BARRY 

becoming each year more dangerous, and those of 1773 
and 1 774 had reduced the superstitious monarch to the most 
abject terror. Corrupt and sycophantic as so many of the 
Court clergy were, there had, happily, never been wanting 
honest and courageous ministers of the Gospel amongst 
them. The celebrated Jesuit preacher, Bourdaloue, had 
iiot hesitated to denounce the profligacy of le Grande 
Monarque in the most scathing terms ; and now Bourdaloue 
had found two worthy successors in the persons of the 
Abbe de Beauvais and the Abbe Rousseau. " Yet forty 
days and Nineveh shall be destroyed ! " was the text of one 
of the former's sermons in April 1774 ; and Louis applied 
the threat of the prophet to himself and trembled. 1 

Madame du Barry, on her side, was scarcely less uneasy. 
The Almanack de Liege for that year had contained among 
its predictions one which announced that, in the month of 
April, " a great lady playing an important role at a foreign 
Court would cease to fill it," and, in dire alarm, she racked 
her brains to find means to divert the mind of her royal 
lover from thoughts of death and judgment. 

On Tuesday, April 26, Louis XV. left Versailles to 
spend a few days at the Little Trianon, the pavilion recently 

1 In Holy Week of the previous year, the Abbe de Beauvais had 
preached a sermon in which the following passage is said to have 
occurred : " Solomon, satiated with voluptuousness, tired of having 
extinguished, in the endeavour to revive his withered senses, every sort 
of pleasure that surrounded the throne, ended by seeking one of a new 
kind in the vile dregs of public corruption" M. Vatel, who discusses this 
question at some length, with the view, apparently, of vindicating the 
character of the Jewish monarch, is of opinion that the Abbe de Beauvais 
never used the words imputed to him, as they are not to be found in his 
collected sermons. Perhaps, however, as Mr. Douglas suggests, they 
were omitted by a timid editor. 

251 



MADAME DU BARRY 

constructed by the architect Gabriel. The following morn- 
ing, on rising, he felt unwell, complaining of pains in the 
head, shivering-fits, and giddiness. He refused, however, 
to countermand the hunt arranged for that day, and, in the 
hope that exercise might prove beneficial, decided to take 
part in the sport as usual. His caleche was accordingly 
ordered, and he set out for the meet, but, on arriving 
there, felt too ill to mount his horse, and followed the 
chase in his carriage, returning to Trianon about half-past 
five. 

During the day the headache from which Louis had 
suffered in the morning had become much worse, and 
Madame du Barry advised that one of his physicians should 
be summoned. To this, however, he refused to consent, 
declaring that it was merely a passing indisposition, which 
a little medicine and a night's rest would cure, and spent 
the evening in the favourite's apartments, where he took 
some simple remedy. 

But the King passed a restless night, and in the morning 
was so much worse that Lemonnier, his First Physician, was 
sent for. 

Lemonnier found his royal patient in a fever, but did 
not appear to think that there was any cause for alarm ; 
and Madame du Barry, much reassured, decided, after a 
consultation with the Due d' Aumont, the First Gentleman 
of the Bedchamber in attendance on his Majesty, to keep 
the King at Trianon until he recovered, and to allow no 
hint of his illness to reach the Royal Family, who had 
remained at Versailles. 

Now it is probable that the favourite and d' Aumont, 
who was devoted to her interests, acted merely from selfish 
motives, knowing full well that even the slightest indis- 
position was enough to arouse qualms of conscience in the 

252 



MADAME DU BARRY 

superstitious monarch. Nevertheless it is now generally 
admitted that, had they been allowed to carry out their 
plan, the life of Louis XV. might have been saved, for, in 
his light and airy apartments at Trianon, with every one 
but Lemonnier, Madame du Barry, and his valet-de- 
chambre excluded from his sick-room, he would have had 
an infinitely better chance of recovery than at Versailles, 
where unbending etiquette demanded that not only his 
whole staff of medical advisers, but every one who had 
the entree^ should be admitted to the royal bedchamber, 
even though its unfortunate occupant were in extremis. 1 

However, ill news flies apace, and, in spite of the 
precautions of Madame du Barry and the duke, the 
state of the King was soon known at Versailles. The 
Royal Family did not dare to go to Trianon without a 
summons from his Majesty ; but the Dauphin despatched 
La Martiniere, who had great influence over Louis and 
was permitted to speak his mind freely. 

La Martiniere did not love Madame du Barry, and 
was, therefore, unlike Lemonnier, but little inclined to 
forego what he conceived to be his duty out of deference 
to that lady's wishes. He was an honest man, brusque 
but firm, and he resolved to persuade Louis to return to 
Versailles. 

Early in the afternoon of the 28th, he reached Trianon, 
saw the King at once, and represented to him that it was 
absolutely without precedent for a King of France to 
allow himself to be nursed anywhere save in his principal 
residence and with the whole Faculty standing round his 
bed ; and, in spite of the entreaties of the favourite, poor 
Louis, ever a slave to etiquette, yielded, and told La 
Martiniere to order his carriage to be got ready. The 
1 Vatel's Histoire de Madame, du Barry., ii. 320. 
253 



MADAME DU BARRY 

King entered it in his robe-de-chambre, and, on arriving 
at the chateau, waited in Madame Adelaide's apartments 
while his bed was being prepared. When, a little later, 
Marie Antoinette and the princesses presented themselves 
at the door of the royal bedchamber, his Majesty intimated 
that he desired to be alone, and they withdrew, leaving 
the invalid to the care of Madame du Barry, who entered 
by the private staircase ; and took her place by his side. 

The fever and the pains in the head increased in severity 
during the night ; the King could not sleep, and at times 
his mind wandered. In the morning, Friday, April 29, 
Lemonnier and La Martiniere held a consultation, and 
decided that his Majesty must be bled. They asked that 
other doctors should be called in, and Louis, prompted 
by Madame du Barry, named Lorry and Bordeu, the 
physicians of the favourite and d'Aiguillon, while, at 
Lemonnier's request, Lassonne, the Dauphiness's phy- 
sician, was also summoned. 

The bleeding did not produce the effect hoped for ; the 
fever continued to increase, and there could no longer be 
any doubt that the King was seriously ill. The doctors 
who had been sent for arrived about noon, and were 
followed into the sick-room by all his Majesty's medical 
advisers — physicians, surgeons, and apothecaries — and also 
by a number of people who had the entree, and whom 
Madame du Barry and d'Aiguillon had up till then 
contrived to exclude. 

The King called upon each doctor in turn to come and 
feel his pulse, described his symptoms, and demanded to 
know what was the nature of his illness ; a point upon 
which none of the learned gentlemen were able to satisfy 
him. They all looked exceedingly solemn, conferred 
together in whispers, shook their heads repeatedly, and, 

254. 



MADAME DU BARRY 

finally, decided that his Majesty must be bled again in the 
course of the afternoon, and a third time at night or the 
following morning, if the second bleeding failed to give 
him relief. 

This announcement alarmed the King. " I am then 
seriously ill," he exclaimed. " A third bleeding will 
leave me very weak. Can it not be avoided ? " 

The Court was in a ferment of excitement when the 
decision of the doctors became known, and the enemies of 
the favourite and d'Aiguillon could not conceal their 
elation. A third bleeding meant the Sacraments and, 
with the Sacraments, confession and the solemn renuncia- 
tion by the King of his mistress, as had been the case with 
Madame de Chateauroux at Metz, in 1744. 1 It is true 
that on that occasion, so soon as the monarch recovered, 
Madame de Chateauroux was taken back into favour ; 
but it was deemed very improbable that, if Madame du 
Barry were once dismissed, Louis would have the courage 
to break his word again. At sixty-four a man is less 
ready to incur the wrath of Heaven than when in the 
prime of life. 

On their side, the Du Barry party, alive to the danger 
which threatened them, used every effort to prevail upon 
the doctors to abandon the idea of a third bleeding. They 
succeeded, but only in a measure, as the Faculty, to satisfy 
its conscience, made the second bleeding unusually 
copious, and reduced the wretched King to the last stage 
of prostration. Nevertheless, the fever continued, and 
Bordeu went up to the apartments of the favourite, who 
had retired from the sick-room before the entry of the 

1 For a full account of Louis XV.'s illness at Metz, and the dismissal 
of Madame de Chateauroux, see the author's " Madame de Pompadour," 
pp. n-19. 

2S5 



MADAME DU BARRY 

crowd of doctors and courtiers at midday, and told her 
that he feared the King was threatened with a long and 
dangerous illness. 

Towards five o'clock, Louis sent for his children and 
kept them for half an hour round his bed, during which 
time, however, he never once addressed them. In the 
evening the Due d'Aumont wished to introduce Madame 
du Barry, but the doctors and the grand officers of the 
Household opposed it energetically, and he was compelled 
to give way. 

The Faculty was composed of fourteen persons — six 
physicians, five surgeons, and three apothecaries ; but the 
King seemed to derive comfort from their number, and 
whenever he happened to observe that one of the 
doctors had left the room, requested that he should be 
brought back, cc as if he imagined that, surrounded by so 
many satellites, no harm could happen to his Majesty." 

That evening the sick man was moved from his great 
State bed into a smaller one, for the sake of convenience. 
All at once, some one happening to approach him with a 
light, observed red specks upon his forehead and cheeks. 
The doctors looked at one another in amazement ; not 
one among them appears to have entertained the least 
suspicion that the King's illness could be small-pox, for 
Louis had had the disease already in 1728, and it was 
believed that he was proof against further attacks. 1 

1 Louis was commonly believed to have contracted the disease from a 
young girl of the neighbourhood, with whom he had had a " passade " : 
" tine petite vachere" according to the Abbe Baudeau ; the daughter of 
the gardener of Louveciennes {Anecdotes) ; the daughter of Montvallier, 
Madame du Barry's steward (Metra); "the once so buxom daughter of 
the gatekeeper " (Carlyle), and so forth ; for the shapes of the damsel are 
protean. There is, however, not a shred of evidence to support this 
story, and we prefer to believe Voltaire, who says that there was an 

256 



MADAME DU BARRY 

However, after they had recovered from their astonish- 
ment, the doctors seemed much relieved to find that all 
uncertainty was at an end, and assured the Royal Family 
that there was no cause for alarm, citing instances of per- 
sons of the King's age who had recovered from the disease. 
The Dauphin, the Comte de Provence, the Comte d'Artois, 
and their wives, on the advice of the doctors, decided to 
keep away from the sick-room ; but Mesdames y although 
none of them had had small-pox, declared that their 
place was by their father's side, and that they intended 
to remain with him ; a resolution which does them 
much honour. The Court seemed to share the opinion 
of the Faculty that the chances were greatly in favour 
of the King's recovery, and retired to rest, u convinced 
that it was an affair of eight or nine days and of a little 
patience." 1 

Bordeu, however, thought otherwise, and when the 
Due de Liancourt reported to him the optimistic feeling 
which prevailed, shook his head and remarked that small- 
pox to a man of Louis's age and constitution was a terrible 
disease. 

The event justified his previsions. Next day, it became 
evident that the disease was developing in its most virulent 
form, and the doctors could not conceal their apprehen- 
sions. After much discussion, it had been decided not to 
inform the King of the nature of his illness, and he was 
accordingly told that he was suffering from a miliary fever. 
But, with his knowledge of diseases, of which he had all 
his life taken a morbid pleasure in talking, the symptoms 
surprised him. " Were it not that I have had the small- 
epidemic of small-pox in the environs of Versailles, and the King fell a 
victim to the scourge in the ordinary way. 

1 Memoires du Baron de Besenval, i. 300. 

257 R 



MADAME DU BARRY 

pox," he exclaimed, " I should believe that I was about to 
have it." 

Mesdames passed the day in the sick-room or in one of 
the adjoining cabinets, and assisted at Mass, which was 
said at noon, on a portable altar placed before the King's 
bed. They, with the Due de Noailles, the faithful Prince 
de Soubise, and the banker valet-de-chambre La Borde, 
were probably the only persons in the room who cared for 
Louis for his own sake ; the rest, consumed with hatred 
and jealousy of one another, thought only of the political 
changes for which the administration of the Sacraments 
would be the signal. Decency, of course, compelled them 
to dissimulate their feelings ; and many of those who 
appeared most affected by the condition of their sovereign 
were secretly rejoicing at the prospect of the fulfilment of 
their hopes. 

In Paris, where the affection of the people, so strikingly 
manifested during Louis's illness at Metz, had long since 
changed to hatred and contempt, there was not even a 
pretence of sorrow. 1 Public prayers for the King's re- 
covery were, of course, ordered ; but the churches and 
chapels were deserted. The shrine of Sainte- Genevieve 
was solemnly opened ; but hardly a knee was bent before 
it. 2 If people were observed to whisper anxiously together, 

1 A striking instance of the steady decline of Louis XV.'s popularity 
is afforded by comparing the number of Masses said on his behalf at 
Notre Dame, at the expense of private individuals, during his three 
illnesses in 1744, 1757, and 1774. On the first occasion, no less than 
6000 were said ; on the second, the number had fallen to 600 ; while in 
1774 only three persons were found willing to pay for a Mass ! — Bing- 
ham's "Marriages of the Bourbons," ii. 421. 

2 After the death of Louis XV., the Abbe de Sainte-Genevieve was 

rallied by some friends, who said that his saint had lost all her power. 

He replied : " Well, Messieurs, what reproach have you to address to 

her ? Is he not dead ? " 

258 



MADAME DU BARRY 

if apprehension were remarked on any face, its cause was 
not the gravity of their sovereign's condition, but lest 
Death should, after all, be deprived of his prey. Louis 
le Bien-aimi, as he himself had once bitterly remarked, 
had become Louis le Bien-hdi^ and all hearts waited impa- 
tiently for the event which was to open that new regime 
on which so many hopes were founded. 

In the evening, La Borde, having on some pretext con- 
trived to get every one out of the room, brought in 
Madame du Barry and conducted her to the King's bed- 
side; but Louis was in too much pain to show any 
pleasure at the sight of his mistress, and, after remaining 
for a short while, she withdrew. 1 

On the Sunday, May i, the King, who had passed a ter- 
rible night, was so weak that it was the general impression 
that he could not survive more than a couple of days, and 
the battle between the " Barriens " and " Anti-Barriens " 
over the question of the Sacraments began in earnest. 
By a singular inversion of the usual order of things, it 
was the patrons of the philosophers who cried out against 
the scandal of allowing the King to remain longer in a 
state of sin, while the divots declared that confession and 
absolution would effectually destroy any chance of re- 
covery his Majesty might have, as everything depended 
on concealing his true condition from him. 

In the midst of this unseemly wrangle, the news arrived 

that Christophe de Beaumont, the Archbishop of Paris, 

had announced his intention of visiting the King on the 

following day. No one doubted that the object of the 

prelate's visit was to exhort his Majesty to repentance and 

confession, and the Du Barry party, in great alarm, held a 

council of war, which was attended by the favourite, 

1 Memoires du Baron de Besenval (edit. Berville and Barriere), i. 303. 

259 



MADAME DU BARRY 

d'Aiguillon, Richelieu, and his son, the Due de Fronsac. 
After some discussion, it was decided that, as it was 
impossible to keep the archbishop away from the King, 
the only course to adopt was to ensure that the Due 
d'Orl6ans, first prince of the blood, should be in the 
room all the time ; that the visit should be one of 
courtesy only, and that no mention should be made 
of the Sacraments. Madame Adelaide, whom the 
doctors of the favourite's faction had solemnly assured 
that the question of Eternity was premature, and 
that it would be her father's death-blow, joined the 
conspiracy. 

At eleven o'clock the next morning, the archbishop, in 
his violet robes, presented himself at the door of the 
King's ante-chamber, where he was met by Richelieu, who 
led him into the Cabinet du Conseil, made him sit down 
by his side, and spoke to him " with great vehemence and 
animated gestures." 

Now, the archbishop was an honest and pious, it narrow- 
minded man, who had suffered exile and persecution for 
the truth's sake, or rather for that of the Bull Unigenitus. 
He deplored the irregularities of the King, but he was 
well aware of the services which Madame du Barry had 
rendered to the party of which he was the ecclesiastical 
head by the overthrow of Choiseul, the elevation of 
d'Aiguillon, and the destruction of the Parliaments. He 
had come to insist on the dismissal of the favourite, as a 
preliminary to confession and the Sacraments, to the 
saving of the King's soul ; but when Richelieu, with 
brutal frankness, pointed out to him that the saving of 
the King's soul meant the return of Choiseul and the old 
Parliament, the triumph, in fact, of the enemies of the 
Church, the archbishop began to wonder whether his 

260 



MADAME DU BARRY 

Most Christian's Majesty's salvation was indeed worth so 
great a sacrifice. 

While he hesitated "between his zeal and his conscience," 
the Due d'Aumont came to announce that the King 
awaited him. The prelate rose and made his way into 
the sick-room, where the first object his eyes rested upon 
was a lady perched on the royal bed. The lady was, of 
course, Madame du Barry, who, however, fled at his 
approach, leaving him alone with the King and the Due 
d'Orldans, charged by Madame Adelaide to take care that 
M. de Beaumont did not say anything which might alarm 
her father. 

The audience, as might be expected, had no result ; the 
archbishop remained a few minutes, condoling with his 
Majesty on the unfortunate event which had temporarily 
deprived his loving^ subjects of the joy of seeing him 
amongst them, and then went back to Paris, without say- 
ing a single word about confession l ; while the King, in- 
ferring from the prelate's avoidance of this unpleasant 
subject, that the doctors could not consider him in any 
danger, sent at once for Madame du Barry, " wept with 
joy, and covered her hands with kisses." 

The " Anti-Barriens," highly indignant at the weak- 
ness of the archbishop, now fell back upon the Grand 
Almoner, the Cardinal de la Roche-Aymon. Incited by 
them, the Bishop of Carcassonne, an honest man, who 
sincerely desired his sovereign's salvation, brandishing his 
pectoral cross before the eyes of the cardinal, summoned 
him, in the name of that cross, to do his duty and propose 
the Sacraments to the King. 

The Cardinal de la Roche-Aymon, who was an ex- 

1 The archbishop returned the next day, and again saw the King, 
but whether he spoke of confession is uncertain. 

261 



MADAME DU BARRY 

ceedingly supple and cautious ecclesiastic, felt himself 
placed in a most embarrassing position. If he declined 
to exhort the King to repentance, and Louis were to die 
without having received absolution, he would be "ruined. 
On the other hand, if he did his duty, and the King were 
to recover, his disgrace would be equally certain. He, 
therefore, determined to steer a middle course, and replied 
that, as the doctors were opposed to anything which might 
tend to alarm the King, he could not propose to administer 
the Sacraments openly, but that he would avail himself of 
the first opportunity of putting his Majesty in the right 
way. He then went to visit the King, but conversed with 
him in so low a tone that no one else could hear what was 
said. In this way, the astute cardinal was able to give his 
own version of what passed between Louis and himself. 

That day a slight improvement was observed in the 
royal patient's condition, in consequence of which a 
number of courtiers who, in the belief that his Majesty 
was doomed, had for the last day or two abstained from 
visiting the favourite, hastened to atone for their neglect. 
But during the night the disease took an alarming turn, 
and the following morning the doctors, who had hitherto 
issued relatively satisfactory reports, published a bulletin 
announcing that the King had been delirious. D'Aiguillon, 
in a violent passion, rushed into the ante-chamber and 
began to upbraid the doctors with their indiscretion in so 
loud a tone that Louis sent to learn what was the matter. 
When the Minister went to visit him soon afterwards, 
he inquired very tenderly after Madame du Barry, and 
expressed a desire to see her ; and it was arranged that 
La Borde should bring the countess to the sick-room in 
the evening. 

But before the time for the favourite's visit arrived, an 

262 



MADAME DU BARRY 

event of great importance had taken place : the King had 
ascertained the disease from which he was suffering. He 
had, it appeared, questioned La Martiniere, and the latter, 
disgusted with the conduct of his colleagues, had confirmed 
his suspicions. 

In an agony of terror, the conscience-stricken King at 
once resolved to purchase absolution by the dismissal, or 
rather the apparent dismissal, of his mistress ; and when, 
according to arrangement, La Borde brought in the 
favourite, he called her to his bedside and said : " Madame, 
I am very ill ; I know what I must do ; I do not wish to 
have a repetition of the scandal that took place at Metz. 
We must part. Go to Rueil, to the Due d'Aiguillon's 
chateau ; await my orders there, and be assured that I shall 
always entertain for you the most tender affection." 1 

Madame du Barry, who had expected a very different 
reception, left the room dissolved in tears, consoling her- 
self, however, with the reflection that Rueil was but two 
leagues from Versailles, and that such a very modified form 
of exile probably implied a speedy recall in the event of 
the King's recovery. 

At four o'clock the following afternoon, Tuesday, 
May 5, a carriage stopped under the northern arcade of the 
chateau. Madame du Barry entered it, accompanied by 
her sister-in-law, Mademoiselle " Chon," and the Duchesse 
d'Aiguillon, and departed from the scene of her triumphs, 
which she was fated never to revisit. 

There was, of course, great excitement at Court when it 
became known that the favourite had left Versailles ; but 
the joy of the " Anti-Barriens " was somewhat marred by 
the knowledge that, if the King happened to change his 

1 There are several versions of Louis's farewell speech to Madame du 
Barry ; we have followed Besenval. 

263 



MADAME DU BARRY 

mind, a courier and a pair of fast horses could bring her 
back within an hour. 

It was believed that the Sacraments would be adminis- 
tered that same evening, but the enemies of the favourite 
were doomed to disappointment. Towards six o'clock, 
the King called La Borde and bade him fetch Madame 
du Barry. 

" Sire, she has gone," answered the valet- de-chambre. 

" Whither has she gone ? " 

" To Rueil, Sire." 

" Ah ! already ! " And the sick man seemed distressed 
at finding that he had been so quickly taken at his 
word. 

Shortly afterwards he summoned d'Aiguillon, and in- 
quired if he had been to Rueil ; all of which showed 
plainly that his thoughts were occupied far more by his 
mistress than by his confessor ; that the lady's departure 
was merely a precautionary measure, and that she would 
be recalled the moment the illness of her royal lover took 
a decided turn for the better. 1 

Later in the evening there was a disgraceful scene in 
the ante-chamber. The cur6 of Versailles announced his 
intention of entering the sick-room to exhort the King to 
place himself in a state of grace without further delay, 
upon which the Due de Fronsac threatened to throw him 
out of the window if he dared even to mention the word 
" confession " in his Majesty's hearing. " If I am not 
killed, I shall return by the door," replied the priest, " for 
it is my duty." However, the attitude of the duke was 
so threatening that the cur£ eventually decided to remain 
silent. 

1 Mimotret inidits du Due de Croy> cited by M. de Nolhac in Marie- 
Antoinette Daupbine, p. 323. 

264 



MADAME DU BARRY 

There was no change in Louis' condition the following 
day, but during the night of the 6th to 7th he had a 
relapse, and ordered the Due de Duras to summon his 
confessor, the Abb6 Maudoux, an honest man, who was 
also the directeur of Marie Antoinette. The duke, a bitter 
enemy of d'Aiguillon, obeyed the order with alacrity, and 
soon returned with the abb£, who remained with the King 
a quarter of an hour. 

When the confessor left, Louis declared his intention 
of receiving the Sacrament on the morrow. Then he sent 
for d'Aiguillon, to whom he confided that the abbe had 
refused to give him absolution so long as Madame du 
Barry was anywhere in the neighbourhood ; that he had, 
therefore, decided to send her to Richelieu's chateau at 
Chinon in Touraine, and desired that he would convey his 
commands to the countess. D'Aiguillon, who, on the 
principle that while there is life there is hope, was 
determined not to abandon the struggle, assured the King 
that there must be some mistake, and, instead of sending 
Madame du Barry to Chinon, hurried off to the Cardinal 
de la Roche- Aymon and the Abbe Maudoux, to endeavour 
to persuade them to administer the Sacraments uncon- 
ditionally. He met, as might be expected, with a good 
deal of opposition from the latter ; but the cardinal was 
complacent enough, and, in the end, matters were settled 
as the Minister desired. 

At six o'clock the next morning, preceded by the clergy 
of the parish and the chapel, surrounded by bishops and 
followed by the Dauphin and his brothers, the Princes and 
Princesses of the Blood, the grand officers of the Crown, 
the Ministers and Secretaries of State, and nearly the 
whole of the Court, all with lighted tapers in their hands, 
the Holy Sacrament is brought in solemn state to the 

265 



MADAME DU BARRY 

apartments of the dying King. The clergy, with 
Mesdames and the princes, enter the royal bedchamber, 
the rest of the cortege remains in the adjoining cabinets. 
The Cardinal de la Roche- Ay mon delivers a short exhor- 
tation to the King, which is quite inaudible, and then 
administers the Sacrament. 

But the ceremony is not yet over. As the cardinal 
turns away, the Abbe Maudoux, " with anxious, acidulent 
face," plucks him by the sleeve and whispers in his ear ; 
upon which the prelate comes to the door, and there 
repeats the formula of repentance drawn up by the Arch- 
bishop of Paris, the bishops, and the confessor : 

" Messieurs, the King charges me to inform you that 
he asks pardon of God for having offended Him and for 
the scandal he has given his people ; that if God restores 
him to health, he will occupy himself with the maintenance 
of religion and the welfare of his people.' ' 

Two voices break the silence which follows : one is old 
Richelieu's, growling out some uncomplimentary reference 
to the Grand Almoner, which Besenval, who records the 
incident, is too modest to repeat ; the other is that of the 
King, who has listened attentively to the declaration of his 
penitence, and now murmurs : " I should have wished for 
sufficient strength to say it myself." 

From that moment the intrigues ceased ; and all, save 
those whose duties compelled them to remain, fled from 
the sick-room, the infection from which was so terrible that 
over fifty persons in the chateau are said to have contracted 
the disease and ten to have died. Hour by hour the King 
grew worse. On May 9, two days after the first religious 
ceremony, the second, the administration of Extreme 
Unction, took place, and on the following afternoon, 

266 



MADAME DU BARRY 

at a quarter-past three, the Due de Bouillon, the Grand 
Chamberlain, appeared at the door of the GEil-de-Boeuf 
and made the announcement which had not been heard for 
fifty-nine years, and was not to be heard again until the 
death of Louis XVIII., half a century later : 
" Messieurs, le Rot est mort. Vive le Rot ! " 

The body of the King, which had been hastily enclosed 
in two leaden coffins, remained in the chamber of death, 
guarded only by a few priests, until the evening of the 
1 2th, when it was conveyed to Saint-Denis, "the funeral 
resembling rather the removal of a load one is anxious to 
get rid of than the last duties rendered to a monarch." 
The coffin was placed in a large carriage covered with a 
pall of black velvet, embossed with gold ; another carriage 
contained the Dues d'Aumont and d'Ayen ; a third, the 
Grand Almoner and the cure of Versailles. All three 
carriages were those which the King had used to take him 
to the chase, and it had not been deemed necessary to 
drape them, according to custom, nor even to caparison 
the horses in black. The cortege was very simple, 
consisting merely of a score of mounted pages and fifty 
Gardes-du- Corps. 1 The faithful Soubise also followed 
the remains of the man from whom he had received 
so many favours, and was the only genuine mourner 
present. 

The funeral procession left Versailles, at a trot, at half- 
past seven, and arrived at Saint-Denis soon after eleven. 

1 It is not generally known that by his will, bearing date January 6, 
1770, Louis XV. had forbidden all great ceremonies at his funeral, and 
directed that his body might be conveyed to Saint-Denis " in the most 
simple manner that may be." It is doubtful, however, if, under 
ordinary circumstances, his wishes would have been so literally observed. 

267 



MADAME DU BARRY 

Among his subjects all feeling of respect and affection for 
the King had long ceased, and coarse laughter and ribald 
jests greeted the cortege as it passed by. In the streets of 
Versailles, the people cried, " Taiaut ! Tdiaut I " imitating 
the tone in which the King had been accustomed to pro- 
nounce the word, while at Saint-Denis there were shouts 
of " Voila le plaisir des dames I Voila le -plaisir ! " 1 

The body of the King was received by the Benedictines, 
accompanied by the clergy of the parish. At the door 
of the abbey, the Bishop of Senlis presented the body to 
the prior and pronounced some words in eulogy of the 
deceased monarch. The prior replied in a similar strain ; 
then the coffin was lowered into the vaults, and the 
fifteenth Louis was left to sleep with his fathers — until 
the Revolution. 

1 Cbronique de P Abbe Baudeau, Revue ritrospective, 1834, vol. iii. p. 42. 
Too much significance ought not, perhaps, to be attached to these 
demonstrations, for much the same had been witnessed at the funeral of 
le Grand Monarque. It was the oppressive taxation, not the King's 
moral character, that his subjects resented. 



268 



CHAPTER XVIII 

Madame du Barry exiled to the Abbey of Pont-aux-Dame» 
— Question of the authorship of the lettre-de-cacbet — Flight of 
the "Roue"" — The remaining members of the Du Barry 
family banished from Court — Madame du Barry and the nuns 
of Pont-aux-Dames — Memorial services for Louis XV. — 
Madame du Barry's financial difficulties — She is permitted to 
leave Pont-aux-Dames and purchases the chateau and estate of 
Saint- Vrain — Her life at Saint- Vrain — She sells her hotel at 
Versailles to Monsieur — Publication of the Anecdotes — And of 
U Ombre de Louis XV. devant le Tribunal de Minos — The 
Vicomte de Langle and Madame du Barry — The ex-favourite 
is permitted to return to Louveciennes. 

Under date May 13, 1774, Hardy writes in his Journal: 
" I am informed that the Comtesse du Barry left the 
village of Rueil last evening, in virtue of a lettre-de-cachet, 
for the Abbey of Pont-aux-Dames . . . under the strictest 
prohibition either to see or to write to any one. She 
was seen in a coach drawn by six horses, followed by a 
second carriage containing two persons, one of whom was 
an exempt (inspector of police)." 

The lettre-de-cachet mentioned by Hardy, banishing 
Madame du Barry to the Abbey of Pont-aux-Dames, in 
Brie, has been generally attributed to Louis XVI., spurred 
on by Marie Antoinette ; and M. Paul Gaulot, in his 
interesting work, "Love and Lovers of the Past," severely 
criticises the conduct of the new King, and declares that 

269 



MADAME DU BARRY 

it was nothing less than an insult to the memory of his 
grandfather. 

The indefatigable M. Vatel, however, in the course of 
his researches, had occasion to examine the Registre des 
Ordres du Roi, then preserved in the Archives of the 
Prefecture of Police, and found there the following 
entries: 

The 9th of the month of May 1774. 

Note of the Minister. 

The sieur Comte du Barry To be taken to the Chateau of 

Vincennes. 
To be taken to the Abbey of 
Pont-aux-Dames. 



The dame Comtesse du Barry 



Now, on May 9, Louis XV. was still alive — he did not 
die till the afternoon of the 10th — and there is no reason 
to believe that the official who made the entries committed 
an error in transcribing the date, as the register was made 
up each day, and the entries in question were preceded 
and followed by other entries also dated the 9th. Nor 
is it at all probable that the then Dauphin, foreseeing 
the death of his grandfather, should have taken upon 
himself to order the arrest and banishment of the favourite, 
as, on the advice of Marie Antoinette, he had declined to 
receive the Ministers or give any orders whatever during 
Louis XV.'s illness. 1 

It follows, then, that the order must have come from 
the late King, and this is M. Vatel's explanation : 

On the 8 th, the day after he had received the Viaticum, 
there was a slight improvement in the King's condition ; 
but on the 9th he was much worse, and Extreme Unction 
was administered. It was then that he resolved on the 
complete sacrifice of his mistress, and also of the chief 

1 M. de Nolhac's Marie- Antoinette DaupMne, p. 315. 
270 



MADAME DU BARRY 

participator in the scandal, " in the belief, perhaps, that he 
would thereby disarm the wrath of Heaven and escape 
the death which threatened him." 1 

M. Vatel's explanation is quite consistent with the 
singular religion of the monarch, who had the most im- 
plicit belief in the efficacy of certain devotional practices, 
prayers of forty hours, the opening of the shrine of Sainte- 
Genevieve, and so forth, who was accustomed to rise from 
the side of Madame de Mailly in order to perform his 
orisons, and who, if Besenval is to be believed, used 
even to pray with his victims of the Parc-aux-Cerfs that 
they might preserve their orthodoxy ; and the fact that, 
on the day before his death, Louis had an interview with 
d'Aiguillon and gave him certain instructions in a low 
voice removes, we think, all doubt about the matter. 

The name of Jean du Barry did not go to swell the 
roll of distinguished persons who had been incarcerated in 
the Chateau of Vincennes. 1 No sooner did that crafty 
adventurer learn that his "frerot" (little brother), as he 
had the impertinence to style Louis XV., was in extremis \ 
than he went to a friend named Goys, a famous wit, 
and asked what he advised him to do. " Valuables and 
post-horses," was the laconic reply ; and when the 
" Roue " inquired if he had no better counsel to give him 
than that, answered that perhaps it would be wiser to 
make sure of the post-horses before troubling about the 
valuables. 

The " count " followed his friend's advice, and when the 
officers of the law came to his house to apprehend him, he 
was well on his way to the Swiss frontier, leaving his mis- 
tresses and his numerous creditors to bewail his departure. 

1 Hhtoire de Madame du Barry, ii. 334, et seq. 
271 



MADAME DU BARRY 

The new King lost no time in sending the other members 
of the Du Barry family after their chief. tc The creature 
has been placed in a convent," writes Marie Antoinette 
to her mother on May 14, "and all who bear this scan- 
dalous name have been driven from the Court." Such, 
indeed, had been the case. On May 12, the " Vicomte " 
Adolphe and his wife each received a lettre-de-cachet, 
informing them that the Court was henceforth forbidden 
ground. The order sent to the viscountess was couched 
in the following terms : 

"Versailles, 12th of May, 1774. 

" I trust, Madame, that you will not doubt all the 
reluctance that I feel in being obliged to announce to you 
a prohibition to appear at Court ; but I am obliged to 
execute the orders of the King, who charges me to inform 
you that his intention is that you do not present yourself 
there until a fresh order from him. His Majesty, at the 
same time, is willing to permit you to visit your aunt at 
the Abbey of Pont-aux-Dames, and I am, in consequence, 
writing to the abbess, in order that you may experience no 
difficulty. You will be kind enough to acknowledge the 
receipt of this letter by the bearer thereof, so that I may be 
able to justify to his Majesty the execution of his orders. 

" I have the honour to be, with respect, Madame, your 
very humble and very obedient servant, 

"The Due de Lavrilliere." 1 

1 We give this letter in full, as it has been the subject of a singular 
misconception. Many years after it was written it fell into the hands of 
a collector of autographs, a certain M. Leber, who, in his catalogue, 
described it as " A rare and curious document, being the original 
lettre-de-cachet sent to Madame du Barry," and added the interesting 
information, culled from the anecdotists, that, on receiving it, the fallen 

favourite exclaimed, " in the way that was usual with her," " A 

fine reign that commences with a lettre-de-cachet ! " In course of time, 

272 



MADAME DU BARRY 

The so-called Marquis du Barry and his consort shared 
the fate of the viscount and viscountess, the marchioness 
being likewise accorded permission to visit the favourite 
at Pont-aux-Dames, though neither of the ladies would 
appear to have availed themselves of the privilege. 
Elie and his wife, indeed, were anxious to dissociate 
themselves from the odium attaching to all who bore the 
" scandalous name," and, three months later, solicited and 
obtained permission to drop it and assume that of Conty 
d'Hargicourt, the uncle of the marchioness. 

The Abbey of Pont-aux-Dames, for which the fallen 
favourite was now compelled to exchange the gilded salons 
of Versailles, was a convent of the Benedictine Order, 
situated some two leagues to the south-west of Meaux. 

M. Leber's collection passed into the possession of the Municipal 
Library of Rouen, where the letter was seen by the brothers De Goncourt. 
These distinguished writers did not, apparently, make the least attempt 
to verify M. Leber's statement ; and, in consequence, we find it repeated 
in their Les Mattresses de Louis XV., and again in their La Du Barry, 
wherein they also assert that the aunt of Madame du Barry mentioned 
in the letter as living in retirement at Pont-aux-Dames " was without 
doubt Madame de Ouantigny, her mother's sister." 

Now, as M. Vatel and Mr. Douglas point out, if the Goncourts had 
exercised any care in reading the letter, they could hardly have failed to 
notice three clear proofs that this lettre-de-cacket could not have been the 
one sent to the favourite : in the first place, it is addressed to the 
viscountess and not to the countess ; in the second, there is no evidence 
that Madame de Quantigny, or any aunt of Madame du Barry, was ever 
at Pont-aux-Dames ; and in the third, the lady's difficulty was not to get 
to Pont-aux-Dames, but to get away from there. 

The error into which the Goncourts fell, however, singular as it is, 
is not nearly so extraordinary as their confusion of Madame du Barry's 
lover, the Due de Cosse-Brissac, with his father, the Marechal de Cosse- 
Brissac, an old gentleman of some four-score summers, to which we shall 
have occasion to refer presently. 

*73 a 



MADAME DU BARRY 

It was a very ancient house, having been founded by 
Hugues de Chatillon, son of a Comte de Saint-Pol, in 
the year 1225, and had been famous for a long line of 
illustrious abbesses. At one time a very wealthy com- 
munity, it had now fallen on somewhat evil days, and the 
vast buildings were in a sadly dilapidated state. 

The nuns numbered fifty, and wore the costume of the 
Bernardines — white woollen wimple and gown, black veil, 
and long scapulary of the same colour descending to the 
feet. The regulations, though not austere, were strict, and 
none of the laxity of morals which prevailed in so many 
convents at this period was to be found at Pont-aux- 
Dames ; for which reason it was occasionally used as a 
kind of prison for ladies who had been so unfortunate 
as to incur the royal displeasure. 

We may here remark that there was nothing shameful 
or humiliating in a detention of this kind. For a woman, 
confinement in a convent was very much the same thing 
as imprisonment in the towers of the Bastille or Vin- 
cennes for one of the opposite sex, and many of the 
greatest ladies in the land had at different times suffered 
the same fate as Madame du Barry. 

We can imagine the impression which the first sight of 
this grim old convent, with its crumbling walls, must have 
made upon the ex-favourite accustomed to the splendours 
of Versailles. " Oh, how triste I " she cried, bursting into 
tears. " And it is to a place like this that they send me ! " 

It is related that on her arrival she was conducted to 
the refectory, to wait whilst her room was being prepared ; 
and that the good sisters, impelled by a kind of morbid 
fascination, came one by one to peep at her. They did 
not dare to look directly upon the face of so terrible a 
sinner, but regarded its reflection in a mirror which was 

*74 



MADAME DU BARRY 

opposite to her, "expecting to see appear therein the 
features of a demon." What was their astonishment, 
however, to perceive a sweet-faced young woman, who 
might well have stood to one of the great painters of old 
time as the model for a saint, and whose woebegone 
expression and tearful blue eyes touched every heart with 
compassion ! 

The Abbey of Pont-aux-Dames was razed to the ground 
during the Revolution, and there is not even a plan of it 
in existence ; but M. Vatel, who visited the spot some 
thirty years ago and questioned the villagers, learned that 
several of them had heard their grandparents speak of 
Madame du Barry, who, it would appear, was lodged in 
the inner quadrangle of the building, in a bare room with 
whitewashed walls. 

At first, the lady's confinement was somewhat rigorous ; 
but her early experiences of conventual life at Sainte-Aure 
stood her in good stead, and she soon became reconciled 
to an existence with which she was already familiar, and 
won golden opinions not only from the abbess, Madame 
de la Roche-Fontenille, who had been by no means pre- 
disposed in her favour, but from the whole community. 
" La Du Barry is very contented in her convent," writes 
the Abbe Baudeau on May 25 ; "the nuns are enchanted 
with her; she loads them with little presents and will, 
perhaps, end by making them very sprightly." 1 Nor 
was she altogether out of touch with the outside world, 
for she was permitted to receive letters on business 
matters ; and Desfontaines, 2 her steward Montvallier's 

1 Chronique de P Abbe Baudeau: Revue retro spectl^t, 1834, vol. iii- P- 56. 

2 Francois Guillaume Fougues-Deshayes (1733-1825), better known 
under the name of Desfontaines de la Vallee. In later years, he be- 
came a prolific dramatist, author of La Bergere des Alpes and other plays, 

275 



MADAME DU BARRY 

secretary, took advantage of this concession to write long 
and frequent letters, giving her an account of everything 
that was likely to interest her. 

The contagious nature of the disease to which Louis XV. 
had fallen a victim had prevented the usual memorial 
services being held at the time of his death. His successor, 
however, had no intention of allowing them to be aban- 
doned, and, in due course, every church and chapel from 
Dunkerque to the Pyrenees resounded with eulogies of 
the deceased monarch. 1 The Abbey of Pont-aux-Dames 
conformed to the general practice, and Madame du Barry 
had, no doubt, the satisfaction of hearing some glib 
ecclesiastic deliver an eloquent appreciation of the virtues 
of the Well-beloved in the chapel of the convent. " Strange 
contrast ! " remarks M. Vatel. c< Louis XV. elevated to 
the Pantheon of religion and history, while Jeanne 
Vaubernier, his last mistress, was undergoing, for the 
same deeds, the public penance of confinement in a 
cloister ! " 

Gradually, the restrictions imposed upon Madame du 
Barry were relaxed ; she was allowed to take walks in the 
neighbourhood ; to send for her chef and several of her 

1 The higher clergy vied with one another in adulation and baseness. 
To read their sermons one would imagine Louis XV. to have been an 
all-conquering monarch, of unblemished virtue, who had died at the 
height of his glory. " I will not talk," said the Bishop of Arras in his 
funeral oration, " of the great achievements of this mighty King, his 
glory, his successes, his victories. A prince so dear to human hearts must 
have been according to God^s heart" There were, however, a few honour- 
able exceptions, and the sale of the Bishop of Alais's sermon, wherein he 
had spoken of the evil example which the late King had set his people 
and had besought his successor to regard the laws of God, was forbidden 
by the Government. 

176 



MADAME DU BARRY 

servants 1 ; and her steward, her banker, and Aubert, the 
Court jeweller, obtained permission to visit her. Now 
that the lady no longer had the Treasury to draw upon, her 
creditors were becoming clamorous, and we, accordingly, 
find her instructing Aubert to sell her parure of diamonds, 
composed of c< a stomacher, epaulettes, four rows for the 
waist, and a knot to loop up the skirt," and another parure 
of rubies and diamonds: collar, pendant, and earrings. The 
reserve price placed upon the first was 450,000 livres, and 
on the second 150,000, and the money was to be devoted 
to the payment of her debts. 

The ex-favourite's financial embarrassments were, indeed, 
at this period, a constant source of annoyance to her, and 
she was, moreover, apprehensive that Louis XVI. , entirely 
dominated as he was by Marie Antoinette and Mesdames, 
might take into his head to confiscate the gifts she had 
received from the late King and reduce her to poverty. 
She was, therefore, naturally anxious to recover her liberty, 
" pour solliciter ses affaires" according to the phrase then 
in vogue, and, in August, wrote to La Vrilliere, pleading 
that convent life was unsuited to her constitution. 

La Vrilliere returned a courteous answer, expressing his 
profound regret at learning that her health was not all 
that could be desired, and informing her that the King had 
the matter under his consideration, which was equivalent to 
a refusal ; and a similar fate awaited an application from the 
Abbess of Pont-aux-Dames, on her charge's behalf, some 
three months later. 

1 Hardy says that Madame du Barry had twenty servants with her at 
Pont-aux-Dames, but this is, no doubt, an exaggeration. The same 
chronicler also reports that her architect, Ledoux, had built for her a 
new wing to the abbey, " where she might lodge more commodiously." 
Another absurd rumour credited the Prince de Lignewith having scaled 
the walls of the convent in order to visit the fair prisoner. 

277 



MADAME DU BARRY 

However, the countess's detention was now drawing 
to a close, and, on March 24, 1775, the Nouvelles 
a la main announce: "Madame du Barry has per- 
mission to leave the Convent of Pont-aux-Dames. She 
takes walks in the environs, but returns to the abbey to 
sleep. There is a rumour that she is about to purchase 
an estate." 

The announcement was correct. Permission to leave 
Pont-aux-Dames had been accorded the ex-favourite on 
condition that she did not take up her residence within 
ten leagues of the Court or Paris ; and, on April 9, she 
purchased, from a certain Sieur Sauvage, the chateau and 
estate of Saint- Vrain, situated in what is now the Depart- 
ment of Seine-et-Oise, two leagues from Arpajon, and 
about twice that distance from Corbeil. 

This property had formerly belonged to Francois Pierre 
de la Garde, younger son of the old lady with whom its 
new owner had lived for a short time as demoiselle de 
compagnie, or rather to his wife, a Mademoiselle Duval 
de Lepinay, and it is probable that the countess had 
visited it some seventeen years previously. The chateau 
was in the style of Henry IV. or Louis XIII., with a 
turret at each corner, and was surrounded by a moat. 
The estate comprised about one hundred and fifty acres. 
The price paid by Madame du Barry was 200,000 livres, 
and she gave a further 15,000 livres for the furniture of 
the chateau. The whole of the countess's immense staff 
of servants, not one of whom had been discharged, in 
spite of their mistress's fallen fortunes, was brought to 
Saint-Vrain; Mademoiselle "Chon" du Barry and her 
sister followed. 

An old inhabitant of Saint-Vrain, interviewed by M. 
Vatel, gave him some interesting details about Madame 

278 



MADAME DU BARRY 

du Barry's life there, which, it appears, he had heard from 
his mother: 

"There was a great deal of entertaining at the chateau; 
they gave balls, receptions, and evening parties. 

"At the same time, Madame du Barry made distri- 
butions of bread, meat, and wood to the poor; all the 
unfortunate received assistance, or rather there were no 
longer any unfortunate. To one she sent something for 
the pot; to another, if it was a woman lying-in, for 
example, soup, linen, caps for the child, and so forth. 
Her waiting-women brought to Saint- Vrain her cast-ofT 
clothing, in which she dressed up all the little girls. 
Often she made the people of the village dance in her 
park. 

" She was much regretted. 

" As to her appearance, I can tell you nothing. Every- 
one knows that she was a beautiful woman. I only 
remember one thing that my mother told me. She had a 
black paroquet, which always cried out when he caught 
sight of her : * La voila la belle comtesse / ' " 1 

In the following September, Madame du Barry pur- 
chased for Madame Rancon, who had left the Couvent 
de Sainte-Elizabeth about the same time as her daughter 
was exiled to Pont-aux-Dames, the little country-house at 
Villiers-sur-Orge, to which reference has already been 
made, having previously rescued her and her husband 
from a usurer into whose clutches they had fallen. This 
generosity, combined with the purchase of Saint- Vrain, 
had apparently made rather severe calls upon the countess's 
resources, for, six months later, we find her selling her 
hotel in the Avenue de Paris at Versailles to Monsieur 
(the Comte de Provence). The Court was then at 

1 Cited in Vatel's Histoire de Madame du Barry, ii. 380. 
279 



MADAME DU BARRY 

Fontainebleau, and, in order to facilitate the transfer of 
the property, Madame du Barry was allowed to revisit 
Louveciennes and to remain there some days. 

On October 28, Malesherbes wrote to the Lieutenant 
of Police, informing him of the approaching publication of 
" a very scandalous book about Madame la Comtesse du 
Barry," and charging him to take every possible precaution 
to prevent its circulation in France. 

This book was the famous Anecdotes, the appearance of 
which must have considerably damped Madame du 
Barry's pleasure at escaping from her convent. The 
author was that mendacious scribe, Pidansat de Mairobert, 
of whose inventive talent we have already had occasion to 
speak. It was printed in London, and copies were 
imported into France by way of Holland, the usual 
channel for such publications. 

Acting on the instructions of Malesherbes which were, 
no doubt, dictated by regard for the memory of the late 
King rather than for the reputation of his mistress, the 
police made heroic efforts to cope with the invasion ; but, 
though a number of copies were seized and destroyed, 
many more escaped their vigilance, and the book, adroitly 
"puffed" by piquant criticisms in various journals, probably 
written by the author himself, soon became the talk of 
Paris. 

Although this atrocious libel was probably rated at its 
true value by the majority of its victim's contemporaries, 
that large class of French historians who prefer piquancy 
to probability have chosen to ignore the character of 
its author — who, it may be mentioned, committed suicide 
two years later — and to regard it as an authoritative 
work, with the result that among those unacquainted 

280 



MADAME DU BARRY 

with the works of the Goncourts, Vatel, and Mr. Douglas 
the name of Madame du Barry is still regarded " as 
a synonym for all the depravity, profligacy, and vice of 
which a woman is capable." 

About the same time as the Anecdotes were published, 
a " satirical brochure," entitled V Ombre de Louis XV. 
devant le tribunal de Minos y appeared at Bordeaux. The 
police, however, were on the alert, and not only seized 
some two thousand copies, but arrested a number of 
persons suspected of being " aiders, abettors, accomplices, 
and adherents " of the crime of lese-majeste. Although 
published at Bordeaux, the printing of the libel was traced 
to Cahors, which led to an acrimonious dispute on the 
question of jurisdiction between the Parliament of the 
former city and that of Toulouse. Finally, the matter 
was referred to the King, who decided in favour of the 
Parliament of Toulouse, by which time, we may suppose, 
" the aiders, abettors, accomplices, and adherents " had 
had enough experience of prison life to last them for the 
remainder of their days. 

The winter of 177 5- 1776 was an exceptionally severe 
one ; indeed such terrible weather had hardly been known 
since the never-to-be-forgotten winter of 1 709 ; and 
Madame du Barry, snowed up at Saint-Vrain, was a prey 
to the direst ennui. She seems, however, to have had 
company. The inevitable " Chon " was of course there, 
and with her a M. Fauga, who passed for the lover of 
that somewhat mature spinster, and also a third person, 
whose relations with his fair hostess are decidedly 
amusing. 

This was a certain Vicomte de Langle, a veteran of the 
Seven Years' War, "fort connu par lUclat de ses dtiordres, 

281 



MADAME DU BARRY 

de ses services militaires, et de ses ouvrages." I In appear- 
ance, we are told, he bore a striking resemblance to 
Mirabeau, and, like that remarkable character, had spent 
a great part of his youth in various fortresses, where he 
had been incarcerated by his family to keep him out of 
mischief. Mr. Douglas attributes to the viscount matri- 
monial designs upon Madame du Barry, who was still a 
rich woman 2 ; but inasmuch as Comte Guillaume was 
still in the flesh, the designs, if there were any, must have 
been of a less legitimate character. However that may be, 
M. de Langle's presence at Saint- Vrain appears to have 
afforded material for much ill-natured gossip, and in the 
Archives Nationales is preserved a curious document, 
entitled Memoires du chevalier de Langles (sic) pour se 
justifier a" avoir gagnS aujeu 90,000 livres a Madame du 
Barry, et d 1 avoir cherchd a la raccommoder avec le due de 
Choiseul. 

In this memoir, the viscount states that three charges 
have been brought against him in regard to his conduct at 
Saint- Vrain. The first is that he had demanded from 
Madame du Barry 90,000 livres which he had won off her 
at play ; the second, that he had been in love with the 
lady and jealous of her ; and the third, that, in order to 
revenge himself upon her for having rejected his addresses, 
he had given an account of her conduct to the Due de 
Choiseul, who was always anxious to hear anything to the 
discredit of his old enemy. 

1 Le voyage de Figaro en Espagne is his best known — or least forgotten 
— work. 

2 In addition to her life-tenancy of Louveciennes and Les Loges tie 
Nantes, worth 40,000 livres per annum, the ex-favourite had an income 
of 105,000 livres derived from rentes on the H6tel de Ville, which had 
been given her by Louis XV., while her jewellery and art treasures 
were worth a considerable fortune. 

282 



MADAME DU BARRY 

All three charges, he declares, are utterly false. He says 
that on the night before Madame du Barry left Saint- 
Vrain for Louveciennes, " in a moment of ennui," she made 
a bet of twelve sols that she would " hole " nine balls out 
of the nineteen at the first throw at 'Trou- Madame* and 
went on increasing the stakes till she owed him 90,000 
livres ; but that of this large sum he refused to accept more 
than fifty louis, for the benefit of a young woman, a protigie 
of his, who was about to enter the countess's service. 

On another occasion, the viscount, according to his own 
showing, was still more generous. This time, his fair 
hostess, forgetting for the moment apparently that she 
no longer had the Treasury at her back, staked on the 
martingale system, with the result that, at one period of 
the game she was in his debt to the extent of 1,500,000 
livres. " But," he adds, "she was the only one who was 
alarmed. The bystanders were as convinced as I myself 
was that I should continue playing until she had recovered 
her losses ; and, in fact, that was exactly what happened." 

The other charges, namely, that he made love to the 
lady and was repulsed, and that, out of spite, he betrayed 
the secrets of her household to M. de Choiseul, are equally 
without foundation. It is a fact that M. de Choiseul 
attempted to " draw " him on the subject, but he got 
nothing for his pains. One day the duke and the viscount 
met, when the following conversation took place : 

" You are a frequent visitor at Madame du Barry's ? " 
The viscount admitted that he did occasionally pay his 
court to the countess. " She has kept all her servants ? " 
" Yes, M. le Due." " Her servants perform comedies ? " 

1 Trou-Madame was a game somewhat similar to bagatelle ; but the 
balls were thrown with the hand, not pushed by a cue, and the pockets 
were numbered both for gain and loss. 

283 



MADAME DU BARRY 

" Yes, M. le Due." " But she must have a considerable 
fortune to support all this expense ? " " I believe so, 
M. le Due." " Adieu, M. de Langle." «' Your servant, 
M. le Due." 1 

The viscount takes great credit to himself for having so 
skilfully baffled the ex- Minister's curiosity ; but, as a 
matter of fact, there was very little to relate, as life in 
" cette abominable campagne" as the author of the above 
amusing memoir designates Saint-Vrain, was singularly 
uneventful. However, the countess only remained there 
eighteen months, for, on November 15, 1776, the Nouvelles 
a la main announce that " Madame du Barry comes 
and goes freely between Paris and Louveciennes." 
The writer adds that this concession was due to the 
Comte d'Artois, who was desirous of succeeding his 
departed grandfather in the good graces of the lady, and 
had had a tender interview with her at Radix de Sainte- 
Foy's house at Neuilly ; M. de Sainte-Foy receiving, as 
the price of his complaisance, the post of surintendant of 
his Royal Highness's finances. 

The latter part of this paragraph was a gross libel upon 
the persons mentioned, as Radix de Sainte-Foy had held 
the post of surintendant des finances to the Comte d'Artois 
for some considerable time ; while the prince in question 
was so hostile to Madame du Barry that, during the last 
months of the lady's favour, he had forbidden his wife to 
speak to her. But the first statement was correct : 
principally, it would appear, through the good offices of 
Maurepas, d'Aiguillon's uncle, now first Minister to 
Louis XVI., 2 the decree of exile pronounced against the 

1 Vatel's Hhtoire de Madame du Barry, ii. 399, et seq. 
3 D'Aiguillon had been replaced by Vergennes, Terray by Turgor, 
and Maupeou by Miromesnil, and all three had been exiled to their 



MADAME DU BARRY 

ex-favourite, except so far as regarded her appearing at 
Court, had been cancelled, and she had been permitted to 
return to Louveciennes. 

estates, though the fall of the duke had been broken by a gratification of 
500,000 livres. Maurepas, though first Minister, had no portfolio. 
Paris went wild with joy over the dismissal of Maupeou and Terray ; 
the former was burned and the latter hanged in effigy, and the riots of 
triumph continued for a whole week. Terray was indeed regarded as the 
very incarnation of evil. One day, being ill, he sent for Bouvard, the 
celebrated doctor, and told him he was suffering " cotnme un damne" 
"What ? already, Monsieur ! " was the reply, which aptly expressed the 
popular feeling in regard to the Comptroller-General. 



285 



CHAPTER XIX 

The Emperor Joseph II. in France — His visit to Madame du 
Barry — His opinion of Choiseul — Voltaire in Paris — Madame 
du Barry calls upon the Patriarch — Meeting between the ex- 
favourite and Brissot at Voltaire's house — Death of Adolphe 
du Barry in a duel at Bath — Conduct of his widow — Henry 
Seymour — His liaison with Madame du Barry — Passionate 
letters addressed by the countess to her English lover. 

The beautiful little chateau of Louveciennes, with its 
almost priceless art treasures, had up to that time seen but 
little of its mistress. Obliged to remain the greater part 
of the year at Versailles, and to follow the Court in its 
journeys from one royal residence to another, a few days 
at considerable intervals had been all that Madame du 
Barry had been able to spend in her " palace-boudoir." 
Henceforth, however, she was to reside here continuously, 
until the doors of Sainte-Pelagie closed upon her, and 
her name was to become as indissolubly connected with 
Louveciennes as Madame de Montespan's with Clagny, or 
Madame de Maintenon's with the old chateau from which 
she took her title. 

It was, perhaps, fortunate for the ex-favourite that 
residence at Louveciennes had still for her the charm of 
novelty, for, during the first year or two, she appears to 
have led a very quiet life. The memory of courtiers is 
proverbially short, and few indeed of the many friends she 
had made in the days of her splendour cared to brave the 

286 



MADAME DU BARRY 

displeasure of the King and Queen by visiting the fallen 
sultana. 

One visitor, however, she had, who could afford to 
ignore the opinion of Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette, 
and whose arrival must have gone far to console the 
mistress of Louveciennes for the neglect of those who 
had once been so loud in their expressions of attachment. 

In April 1777, the Emperor Joseph II. arrived in 
France, on a visit to his sister, travelling under the name 
of the Comte de Falckenstein. The bluff, outspoken 
monarch spent some weeks in the capital, and appears to 
have greatly pleased the Parisians by the interest he took 
in all that he saw around him ; but the impression which 
he created at Court, where he took upon himself to 
animadvert in the strongest terms on the shameful ex- 
travagance which prevailed, and the indecorous behaviour 
of the Queen and her unworthy favourites, was by no 
means so favourable ; and Marie Antoinette must have 
been unfeignedly glad when the time came for him to 
return to Vienna. 

About a month after his arrival in France, his Imperial 
Majesty announced that he had a great desire to in- 
spect the celebrated hydraulic machine at Marly, which, 
as we have mentioned, was close to Louveciennes. He 
had previously, it appears, caused inquiries to be made in 
order to ascertain if Madame du Barry was likely to be at 
home that day ; and the lady in question happened to be 
taking an unpremeditated walk in the direction of the 
machine at the very moment when the Emperor arrived 
there. His Majesty requested that the countess might 
be presented to him, expressed great admiration for the 
pavilion which he saw in the distance, begged that he 
might be permitted to examine it more closely, and 

z87 



MADAME DU BARRY 

remained in conversation with the fair chatelaine for the 
space of two hours. 

After Joseph II. had duly admired the Fragonards, 
Drouais, and other treasures, he remarked upon the beauty 
of the gardens. The countess proposed to show them to 
him ; the Emperor accepted, and offered his arm ; the 
lady modestly declined : " Oh, Sire ! I am unworthy of 
such an honour." To which the monarch replied 
gallantly (he was very far from gallant, it may be re- 
marked, where the Polignacs, Guemen6es, and other 
harpies whom his foolish sister had gathered round her 
were concerned) : ** Raise no objection on that score. 
Beauty is always Queen." 1 

Joseph afterwards expressed the opinion that the 
countess was not so beautiful as he had expected to find, 
but that he was very glad to have seen her. 

Marie Antoinette was greatly annoyed on learning of 
her brother's escapade, and her indignation was intensified 
by the Emperor's refusal to visit the Choiseuls. The ex- 
Minister's hopes of a speedy return to place and power on 
the death of Louis XV. had not been realised, for the 
new King had learned the lessons which La Vauguyon 
had taught him but too well ; and though that intriguing 
old gentleman had died some years before, his teaching 
had not been effaced from his former pupil's mind. 
Choiseul had counted much on the Emperor's visit ; but 
Joseph did not share Marie Antoinette's admiration of 
the duke, and one day remarked to Louis XVI. that it 

1 Memoires secrets, May 21, 1777. Mercy, in a letter to Maria 
Theresa, says that Joseph met the lady in the garden, tones down the 
two hours' conversation to one of " a few moments," and states that his 
Imperial Majesty " found the said countess such as I have depicted 
her." The Empress replies : "I should have been better pleased if the 
Emperor had refrained from visiting that despicable Du Barry." 

288 



MADAME DU BARRY 

was fortunate that he had a judicious and even-tempered 
Minister at the beginning of his reign, adding : " If 
the Due de Choiseul had been in office, his restless and 
turbulent spirit would have plunged the Kingdom into 
great difficulties." 



On February 10, 1778, Voltaire returned to Paris, after 
an absence of eight-and-twenty years, and was received 
with the utmost enthusiasm by the Academy, by Society, 
and by all the more important foreign visitors. He 
received all Paris in his bedroom at the house of the 
Marquis and Marquise de la Villette, in the Rue de 
Beaune. There was an ante-chamber, which from seven 
o'clock in the morning until half-past ten at night was 
thronged with worshippers. They were introduced one 
by one to the Patriarch, whom they found enveloped in 
an enormous velvet pelisse lined with ermine and braided 
with gold, and with a nightcap on his head, ostentatiously 
correcting the proofs of his tragedy of Irene. Madame 
du Barry came to pay her court among the rest, but had 
considerable difficulty in obtaining an audience. We 
read in the Mtmoires secrets, under date February 21 : 

"Friday. — Voltaire has worked so hard, that he has 
not allowed his secretary time to dress himself. Madame 
la Comtesse du Barry presented herself after dinner ; but 
they had great difficulty in persuading the old invalid to 
see her. His amour-propre would not permit him to appear 
before this beauty without having made his toilette. He 
yielded at length to her importunity, and repaired by the 
graces of his mind what he lacked in the matter of 
outward elegance." 1 

1 In reference to this visit, Lebrun wrote to Buffon : "The lean 



MADAME DU BARRY 

Madame du Barry's visit was marked by an interesting 
episode. Brissot, the future leader of the Girondins, 
relates in his Memoires that he was very anxious to submit 
to Voltaire the first part of his Thiorie des Lois criminelles. 
He made his way to the Rue de Beaune, but, on arriving 
there, his courage failed him, and he left without at- 
tempting to obtain an interview with the great man. 
On the following day, however, he returned to the 
charge. 

" I had almost reached the ante-chamber," he says, 
" where there seemed that day less commotion than on 
the previous evening, when I heard a noise within, and 
the door opened. Assailed by my foolish timidity, I 
quickly redescended the stairs, but, ashamed of myself, 
I retraced my steps. A woman, whom the master of the 
house had just shown out, was at the foot of the staircase. 
This woman was beautiful and had a kind face. I did 
not hesitate to address myself to her, and inquired if she 
thought that it was possible for me to be introduced to 
M. de Voltaire, telling her frankly the object of my 
visit. c M. de Voltaire has received scarcely any one to- 
day,' she answered kindly. * However, it is a favour, 
Monsieur, which I have just obtained, and I do not doubt 
that you will obtain it also/ And as if, through my em- 
barrassed air, she had divined my timidity, she herself 

rolled from his (Voltaire's) eyes when speaking of his Belle et Bonne 
(Madame de Villette), as he calls her, and comparing her simple grace 
to Madame du Barry, who had just left him." Five years before, when 
Louis XV. was still alive, and Madame du Barry all-powerful, the 
Patriarch had, as we have seen, formed a much higher opinion of the 
lady's charms. But times had changed, and she could no longer be of 
any assistance in procuring for him the honours of the Court, which were 
needed, he thought, to put the comble upon his glory. So goes the 
world ! 

290 



MADAME DU BARRY 

called the master of the house, who had not yet closed the 
door upon her, and I was admitted. She left me, after 
having responded to my profound salutations by a smile 
full of kindness and which seemed to recommend me. 

"... I ought to mention the name of this amiable 
woman, whom I met at Voltaire's door ; it was Madame 
du Barry. In recalling to myself her smile so full of 
sweetness and kindness, I became more indulgent towards 
the favourite; but I leave to others the task of excusing 
the weakness and infamy of Louis XV. . . ." 

Brissot goes on to tell us that in a conversation with 
Mirabeau he happened to remark that, bad as Madame 
du Barry was, she compared very favourably with the 
Maintenons and Pompadours, since she, at any rate, had 
never made a despotic use of her power; to which 
Mirabeau replied; " Vous avez raison; si ce ne fut pas une 
Vestale, 

" * La f ante en est aux dieux qui lafirent si belle? " 

Towards the close of that same year, a great sorrow 
befell Madame du Barry: her nephew, the so-called 
Vicomte du Barry, to whom she was much attached, met 
his death under tragic circumstances. 

After their banishment from Court in 1774, Adolphe 
du Barry and his young wife seemed to have led a wandering 
existence, patronising in turn various health-resorts, where 
the viscountess might have her fill of balls and routs, and 
the viscount, who, like the majority of fine gentlemen of 
the time, was an inveterate gamester, indulge his fond- 
ness for faro and kindred pursuits. In the late summer 
or early autumn of 1778, they were at Spa, and here they 
met a young Irish adventurer, who called himself Count 
Rice, a cousin a la mode de Bretagne of Marshal Lacy. 

291 



MADAME DU BARRY 

The Irishman, who is described as " un tres beau garfon, 
{Tune education parfaite" and the viscountess soon became 
on very friendly terms, and whenever the fascinations of 
the green tables at the Ridotto claimed the viscount's 
attention, Mr. Rice seems to have been in the habit of 
keeping the lady company. 

From Spa the Du Barrys went to Bath, accompanied 
by Rice and a compatriot of his named Toole ; where, 
thanks to the good offices of Mrs. Darner, who took a 
great fancy to the viscountess, they penetrated into the 
most exclusive circles, and, with the aid of a faro bank, 
which, in defiance of the law, they kept at their house in 
Royal Crescent, seem to have had a very profitable time. 

One day, however, Du Barry and Rice had a violent 
quarrel. They were alone at the time, and its origin was 
never discovered, but the most probable explanation is 
that Du Barry was jealous of the Irishman's atten- 
tions to his wife. 1 Any way, they were exasperated 
against each other to the last degree, for not only was 
it determined that they should fight a duel, but that it 
should continue till one of them was killed. 

Two nights later, Du Barry having spent the interval 
in arranging his affairs, they were seen to leave the house 
together, followed by the viscountess — who had discovered 
their intention — uttering frantic cries. They managed to 
elude her, however, hired a coach, and accompanied by 
Toole, another friend named Rogers, and a surgeon, 
drove out to Claverton Down, a spot much favoured by 
gentlemen of the neighbourhood who had differences to 
settle. Here they waited till daybreak, when Du Barry 

1 This is the conclusion arrived at by M. Marius Tallon, who, some 
years ago, published an interesting monograph on the Vicomtesse du 
Barry. 

292 



MADAME DU BARRY 

sprang out of the coach and insisted on an immediate 
commencement. The conditions were that each should 
be armed with a brace of pistols and a sword ; that they 
should fire from a distance of twenty-five paces, and then 
engage with the steel, and that the conqueror might des- 
patch his antagonist, even if he lay helpless on the ground. 

Du Barry fired first and lodged a ball in Rice's thigh. 
The Irishman, however, contrived to keep his feet and 
fire both his pistols, the second shot piercing his adver- 
sary's breast ; and then advanced upon him sword in 
hand. Du Barry asked for quarter, which Rice at once 
granted ; but, almost at the same moment, the Frenchman 
fell to the ground and expired. 

The body of the unfortunate young man was buried 
in Bathampton Cemetery, and a stone placed over his 
grave bearing the inscription : 

Here rest the remains of 

"John Baptist, discount du Barry 

Obiit 1 8 November 1778. 

Rice, who recovered from his wound, was tried for 
homicide at Taunton Assizes in the following April, and 
acquitted. He lived for many years, and was eventually 
killed in the Peninsular War. 1 

The widowed viscountess returned to France, and re- 
tired for a few months to a convent. On quitting it, she 
caused the arms of her husband to be removed from her 
carriages, changed her servants' liveries, and finally, having 
succeeded in obtaining permission to return to Court, 
reappeared there under the title of the Comtesse de 
Tournon. These insults to the memory of his son, to 

1 Dutens's Memoires d'un voyageur qui se repose (edit. 1806), ii. 125, 
et seq. M. Marius Tallon's La Vicomtesse de Tournon et les Du Barry, 
passim. 

293 



MADAME DU BARRY 

whom, to do him justice, he seems to have been genuinely 
attached, greatly exasperated the " Roue" and when, to 
crown all, the lady petitioned to have the estates she had 
inherited from her husband formed into a " county of 
Tournon," he opposed the application. A long and 
acrimonious lawsuit followed, in which the li Comtesse 
de Tournon," although she had the best of the compro- 
mise eventually arrived at, was made to cut a very sorry 
figure. In 1782, she married again, her second husband 
being a relative, the Marquis de Claveyron, but died three 
years later. 



For some years after the death of Louis XV. Madame 
du Barry appears to have led an exemplary life. We 
cannot, however, agree with Mr. Douglas that this was 
attributable to the fact that the image of the late King had 
not yet been effaced from her heart ; it is more likely to 
have been due to accident, or to the fear that a resump- 
tion of her irregularities would have been promptly visited 
with another and longer period of cloistral seclusion. 
Towards the year 1780, however, the restraining influence, 
if one there was, had evidently been removed, for we find 
her indulging in a grande passion. 

About half a league from Louveciennes, and clearly 
visible from the terrace adjoining the pavilion of Madame 
du Barry, there stands a villa called Prunay, built or 
restored by a Madame Le Neveu at the beginning of the 
eighteenth century, and occupied at the time of which 
we are writing by a middle-aged Englishman named 
Henry Seymour. 

A good deal of misconception exists among both French 
and English writers in regard to the identity of this Henry 

?94 



MADAME DU BARRY 

Seymour. The Goncourts refer to him as Lord Seymour, 
and state that he was English Ambassador at the French 
Court ; to M. Vatel he is " un assez grand personnage" 
and " though neither lord, ambassador, or even barronet 
(sic), a count " ; while the late Captain Bingham, in his 
delightful work, *' The Marriages of the Bourbons," calls 
him Lord Henry Seymour. 

As a matter of fact, Henry Seymour had no title at all, 
though M. Vatel is correct in supposing him to be "un 
assez, grand personnage." He was the son of Francis 
Seymour, of Sherborne, Dorset, M.P. for Great Bedwyn, 
1 732-1 7 34, and for Marlborough, 1 734-1 741, by 
Elizabeth, daughter of Alexander Popham, of Littlecot, 
Wiltshire, and widow of Viscount Hinchingbrook. His 
uncle was Sir Edward Seymour, who, on the death of 
Algernon, seventh Duke of Somerset, in 1750, succeeded 
in establishing his claim to the dukedom. 

Henry Seymour was born in London in 1729, and 
educated at New College, Oxford. At the age of twenty- 
four, he married Lady Caroline Cowper, only daughter 
of the second Earl Cowper, and during the absence of his 
brother-in-law, the third earl, at Florence, where he resided 
for some years, seems to have occupied the family seat, 
Panshanger, near Hertford. He was himself, however, a 
considerable landowner. From his father, who died in 
1762, he inherited Sherborne; from his uncle, William 
Seymour, the estate of Knoyle, in Wiltshire ; while he 
also owned Northbrook Lodge, Devon, Redland Court, 
Bristol, and a property at Norton, near Evesham. His 
town house was in Charles Street, Berkeley Square. 

Following the example of his father and his uncle, the 
duke, he entered political life, was appointed Groom of 
the Bedchamber, and successively represented in Parlia^ 

295 



MADAME DU BARRY 

ment the boroughs of Totnes (1763-1768), Hunting- 
don ( 1 768-1 774), and Evesham (1774- 1780). He only 
addressed the House upon one occasion, however, which 
was on February 29, 1776, in support of Fox's motion 
for an inquiry into the mismanagement of the American 
War. 

Lady Caroline Cowper died in 1771, after bearing her 
husband two daughters, Caroline, who married William 
Danby, of Swinton, Yorkshire, and Georgina, who became 
the wife of Comte Louis de Durfort, sometime French 
Ambassador at Venice ; and, four years later, Seymour 
married Anne Louise Therese, Comtesse de Panthou, a 
young widow, twelve years his junior, by whom he had 
a son, Henry, born in 1776. 

In 1778, for reasons which are uncertain, though Mr. 
J. G. Alger — to whose interesting article in the Westmin~ 
ster Review (January 1897) we are indebted for most of 
our information about Madame Du Barry's English lover 
— seems to think it was for the sake of economising, 
Seymour settled in France, rented a house in Paris, Rue 
de la Planche, Faubourg Saint-Germain, and applied for 
legal domicile, to protect his property from forfeiture to 
the Crown as aubaine^ in the event of his death. About 
the same time, he purchased Prunay, and appears to have 
spent a considerable sum on improving the house and 
grounds. 

The only evidence of Seymour's connection with the 
ex-favourite, apart from a passing reference in the 
Mimoires of the Abbe Georgel, are the lady's letters to 
her lover, a number of which, together with a lock of 
her hair tied with blue ribbon, were sold by auction in 
Paris in 1892. Only a few of these letters, however, 

296 



MADAME DU BARRY 

have been published, and it is uncertain into whose pos- 
session the remainder have passed. As none of the 
published letters bear any date, except the day of the 
week, it is impossible to say when the liaison began. 
According to the Abbe Georgel, the attachment was 
formed shortly after Madame du Barry's return to 
Louveciennes, that is to say, in the early part of the 
year 1777 ; but M. Vatel thinks it was not until 1779 
or 1780, as in one of the countess's letters, written 
while they were still only friends, she speaks of a little 
girl called Cornichon, " who talks of you constantly." 
This little girl, says M. Vatel, who was the daughter of 
the gardener at Louveciennes, and a great pet of the 
mistress of the chateau, was not born until 1775, an< ^> 
therefore, must have been at that time three or four years 
of age at least. 

The liaison between Henry Seymour and Madame du 
Barry does not appear to have been exempt from storms, 
nor was it of long duration. However, while it lasted, 
it was undoubtedly a genuine passion, and the lady's 
letters to her lover bear the unmistakable stamp of 
sincerity. " What an unlooked-for tone in this corre- 
spondence ! How different a du Barry is revealed to 
you in the shadow, behind the popular du Barry of 
pamphlets and romances ! It is no longer the courtesan, 
no longer the favourite ; it is a woman who loves." 1 
" What a romantic passion, what sensibility, what trans- 
port ! It was a real love drama, with elegies, pastorals, 
and eclogues enough to satisfy the least sentimental man 
in the world." 2 

1 E. and J. de Goncourt's La Du Barry, p. 211. 

2 Nouvelks a la main sur Madame du Barry, a pretended manuscript 
published by Emile Cantril in 1761. 

297 



MADAME DU BARRY 

In the first letter, we find Madame du Barry inquiring 
anxiously after the health of Seymour's younger daughter, 
who is ill, and assuring him of the deep sympathy she 
feels for him in his trouble : 

" I am greatly touched, Monsieur, by the cause which 
deprives me of the pleasure of seeing you at my house, 
and I most sincerely pity your daughter in the illness 
from which she is suffering. I imagine that your heart 
is undergoing quite as much pain as hers, and I share 
your sensibility. I can only exhort you to take courage, 
since the doctor assures you there is no danger. If the 
interest that I take (ji prans ! ) were able to be of some 
consolation to you, you would be less agitated. 

"Mademoiselle du Barry ( c Chon') is as sensible as 
I am to all that concerns you and begs me to assure you 
of it. 

" Our journey has been very fortunate ; Cornichon x 
does not forget you and talks of you constantly. I am 
delighted that the little dog affords your daughter a 
moment's diversion. 

" Accept, Monsieur, the assurance of the sentiments 
that I have for you. 

" Louveciennes, Saturday, 6 o'clock? 

In the next, they are still only friends, but the lady is 
evidently glad to avail herself of any (excuse for writing 
to him : 

" It has long been remarked that little attentions pre- 
serve friendship, and Monsieur Seymour ought to be 
well persuaded of the extent to which Louveciennes is 
interested in all that can please or satisfy him. He 

1 See p. 297, supra, 
298 



MADAME DU BARRY 

appears to be very anxious to possess a coin squandered 
very unsuitably in the little game of loto * ; it is of the 
time of Louis XIV. Monsieur Seymour is a great 
admirer of that age, so fertile (fegont ! ) in marvels. 
Here is a miniature of it, which the Louveciennes ladies 
send you. They part with it with pleasure, because they 
know that Monsieur Seymour will appreciate the sacrifice, 
and will be well assured that the ladies will find more 
essential occasions of proving their friendship for him. 

" We have no news here, except of the little dog, 
which is well and drinks of its own accord." 2 

In the third letter, friendship has developed into love — 
into passion. He has become necessary to her happiness ; 
she desires to be constantly with him : 

" Now that I am deprived of the satisfaction of seeing 
you, I have a thousand things to tell you, a thousand 
things to communicate to you. . . . Never have I felt so 
much as at this moment how necessary you are to me. 
Rest assured that it would be a happiness to be constantly 
with you. . . . Adieu, my friend. What an age between 
now and Saturday ! " 

The next letter was, apparently, written later in the 
same week. She is all impatience for Saturday to arrive : 

"The assurance of your affection, my affectionate 
friend, is the happiness of my life. Believe that my heart 
finds these two days very long and that were it in my 
power to curtail them, it would have no more uneasiness. 

1 She probably means that the coin had been used as a counter at 
loto. 

2 Apparently a puppy which Seymour had given her, in return for tha 
little dog she had sent his daughter. 

299 



MADAME DU BARRY 

I await you on Saturday with all the impatience of a soul 
entirely yours, and I hope that you will desire nothing 
(sic). I mean to be rid of all my ailments by Saturday, 
and to feel alone the pleasure of proving to you how dear 
you are to me. Adieu, I am yours. 
" Thursday, z o'clock" 

The letter which follows is in an equally passionate 
strain : 

" My heart is undividedly yours, and, if I have failed to 
keep my promise, my fingers alone are to blame. I have 
been very unwell since you left me, and I assure you that 
I have only strength to think of you. Adieu, my 
affectionate friend ; I love you — I repeat it, and I believe 
myself happy. I embrace you a thousand times, and am 
yours. Come early." 1 

From the next it would appear that a little cloud had 
arisen upon the lover's horizon ; Seymour had evidently a 
suspicion that the lady's heart was no longer undividedly 
his : 

" You will only have a single word, and it would be a 
reproach if my heart could make you one. I am so tired 
after four long letters which I have just written that I 
have only strength to tell that I love you. To-morrow I 
will tell you what has prevented me giving you tidings of 
myself, but believe me that, whatever you say, you will be 
the only friend of my heart. 

" Friday, 2 o'clock" 

1 Printed in the catalogue at a sale of autograph in February 1755, 
and published by the Goncouits. 

300 



MADAME DU BARRY 

The tone of its successor, however, must have been 
calculated to reassure him : 

" Mon Dieu ! my affectionate friend, how melancholy- 
are the days which follow those that I have had the 
pleasure of spending with you, and with what joy I see 
the moment arrive which is to bring you to me ! " 

But at the time the next was written the cloud had 
become larger : 

" I shall not go to Paris to-day, because the person I 
was to go and see came on Tuesday just after you left. 
His (or her) visit greatly embarrassed me, for I believe 
that you were the object of it. Adieu ; I await you with 
the impatience of a heart entirely yours and which, in 
spite of your injustice, feels that it cannot be another's. 
I think of you ; I tell you so and repeat it, and have no 
other regret than that of not being able to tell you so 
every moment. 

" Louveciennes, noon" 

The ambiguities of the French language, as Mr. Alger 
points out, prevent us from knowing whether la personne 
and sa visite mentioned in the aforegoing letter refer to a 
man or a woman. a Was it Mrs. Seymour suspicious of 
her husband's intimacy with Madame du Barry, or was it 
the Due de Brissac, already hovering round his future 
mistress ? " Both he and M. Vatel incline to the opinion 
that it was the latter ; and the lady's complaint of 
Seymour's " injustice," presumably unjust suspicions, 
certainly strengthens this supposition. However, all 
doubt on the matter is set at rest by the next letter, 
which, together with the four which follow it, is 

301 



MADAME DU BARRY 

not given in the works of the Goncourts or Vatel, but 
was published, we believe, for the first time by Mr. 
Alger : 

c< I am as much surprised as you, my affectionate 
friend, at the visit. I assure you that it gave me no 
pleasure. I am so absorbed with you that I could not be 
diverted by anything that was not you. How unjust and 
cruel you are ! What pleasure do you take in tormenting 
a heart which cannot and will not be anybody's but 
yours ! 

" Adieu ; do not forget une amie who loves you. I have 
no strength to tell you more. I would fain, but cannot, 
flee from you." 

But if Seymour was jealous of Brissac, Madame du 
Barry was jealous of Mrs. Seymour : 

" I wish it were possible for you to live for me alone, 
just as I would live only for you ; but your ties are an 
invincible obstacle, and every moment of my life, even 
those I pass with you, is embittered by this cruel idea." 

From another letter it would appear that Seymour had 
proposed to visit Madame du Barry, but that she had had 
a prior engagement, possibly with his rival : 

" I am vexed at having an engagement to-day. I am 
not much in Society, but as we cannot pass our lives in 
a tite-a-tete, you will understand that I require a few 
diversions." 

The next shows that relations between them were becom- 
ing very strained, and that Seymour had reproached her 
bitterly, and threatened to break off the connection : 

302 



MADAIME DU BARRY 

" I feel the value of such a friend as you, Monsieur. I 
form empty plans, which I should not have the strength 
to carry out. Your letter has rent my soul ; the idea of 
seeing you no more adds to all my sufferings. Come, my 
friend, strengthen my still wavering heart. Your tender 
and persuasive friendship can alone assuage the throbbing 
wound of my soul. Come back, my affectionate friend ; 
I cannot be happy without you." 

She will not, cannot, give him up ; he has become 
necessary to her very existence : 

" Understand my heart and my weakness, my friend. 
I would fain renounce and shun you, but I am so ill that 

I believe it would be impossible to live without seeing 

>> 
you. 

But the rupture comes none the less, and it is her own 
hand which severs the chain : 

"It is needless to speak to you of my affection and 
sensibility ; you know it ; but what you do not know are 
my sufferings. You have not condescended to reassure 
me as to what disturbs my mind. Therefore I think that 
my tranquillity and happiness are immaterial to you. It 
is with regret that I speak to you of this, but it is for the 
last time. My head is well, my heart is what suffers ; 
but with much resolution and courage I shall succeed in 
subduing it. The task is hard and grievous, but it is 
necessary. It is the last sacrifice that remains for me to 
make. My heart has made all the others ; it is for my 
reason to make this. Adieu ; be assured that you alone 
fill my heart. 

" Wednesday, midnight? 

303 



MADAME DU BARRY 

Seymour does not appear to have been altogether an 
amiable person. He had an illegitimate son, with whom 
his relations were strained, and he was on very bad terms 
with his wife. In January 178 1 they separated, having 
for some months previously communicated only in writ- 
ing, though living in the same house ; but, according to 
Mr. Alger, it is doubtful whether the husband's attentions 
to Madame du Barry were responsible for their disagree- 
ment. 1 

Seymour continued to reside at Prunay down to August 
1792, when, alarmed at the progress of the Revolution, 
he fled to England, leaving all his papers behind him. He 
was registered as an emigrd, and his property appears to 
have been confiscated and sold. " Madame du Barry's 
letters," says Mr. Alger, " must have been included in 
the seizure, and Seymour's preservation of them, coupled 
with his continued residence at Prunay, seems to show that, 
parting in sorrow not in anger, they remained acquaint- 
ances, if not friends ; but the letters either never reached 
the Archives or were abstracted. They are said to have 
been purchased by Barriere, the editor of " Memoirs of 
the Eighteenth Century and of the Revolution," at a sale 
of autographs in 1837, perhaps the Baillot sale oi 
October 25, 1837. But Barriere, who was a clerk at 
the Prefecture of Police, may have found them there, 01 
have come by them in some clandestine way. We know 
what collectors are capable of, and Barriere appears to have 
made a mystery of them. In 1838 he communicated six 
of them to the brothers Goncourt for publication in their 
Portraits Intimes, and, twenty years, later he produced a 

1 See Mr. Alger's article on Henry Seymour in the Westminster 
Review, January 1897, in which he gives some interesting details about 
Mrs. Seymour. 

104 



MADAME DU BARRY 

seventh, which appeared in their Mattresses de Louis XV. 
He evidently gave them the impression that he had no 
others, but Vatel, Madame du Barry's latest biographer, 
was presented by him with an eighth, which he bequeathed 
to a Versailles publisher. Yet Barriere was all along in 
possession of thirty others, which, together with the lock 
of hair, were not disposed of till 1892. Though the whole 
collection is doubtless in safe keeping, I have been unable 
to ascertain its whereabouts." 1 

Seymour spent the rest of his life at his Wiltshire seat, 
Knoyle, where he died in 1805. His heirs after Waterloo 
claimed ,£8000 out of the compensation paid by France 
for losses of British subjects, and Mr. Alger thinks that 
the claim was allowed. His son, Henry, who lived till 
the age of seventy-three, also resided at Knoyle, and was 
High Sheriff of Wiltshire in 1835. He married a Miss 
Hopkinson, of Bath, but his marriage vows, like those of 
his father, seem to have been but lightly regarded, for 
after Waterloo he revisited France, and formed a connec- 
tion with a lady of the Bourbon-Conti family. Of this 
intrigue a daughter was born, who married Sir James 
Tichborne, and became the mother of the young man 
personated by " the Claimant." 

1 Westminster Review^ January 1897. 



30? 



CHAPTER XX 

Liaison between Madame du Barry and the Due de Brissac — 
Love-letters of the duke — Belleval's visit to Madame du Barry 
— The countess commutes 50,000 livres per annum settled on 
her by Louis XV. for a sum of 1,200,000 livres — Madame du 
Barry a witness in the Diamond Necklace affair — Her life at 
Louveciennes — The Comte de Cheverny's impressions of the 
ex-favourite. 

Madame du Barry would not appear to have experi- 
enced much difficulty in finding consolation for the loss ot 
her English lover, for not long afterwards she formed what 
the Goncourts call " une liaison tendrement maritale " with 
the Due de Brissac, 1 whose attentions to her, if M. VateFs 
and Mr. Alger's suppositions are correct, had been 
responsible for her breach with the jealous Seymour. 
The Due de Brissac, 2 who until the death of his father, 

1 The Goncourts confound the Due de Brissac with his father, the 
Mar6chal de Brissac, who died in December 1780: "Enfant gatee de 
l'amour, elle (Madame du Barry) finit par l'adoration d'un chevalier, 
du dernier preux de France ! . . . Ce h£ros d'un autre temps, dont 
Tame est, comme l'habit, a la mode de Louis XIV., Phentier des males 
vertus de la vieille France ; ce beau vieillard, le dernier courtisan des 
femmes, eleve" dans le monde et presque dans la langue des grands 
sentiments et des ratfinements de tendresse de Clelie et de l'Astrde," 
&c. &c. The absurdity of this error will be appreciated when we 
mention that at the time of Louis XV.'s death the Marechal de Brissac 
was already seventy-six and had been paralysed for more than twenty 
years ! 

s He was the eighth holder of the title, the dukedom dating from 

306 



MADAME DU BARRY 

the Marechal Due de Brissac, in December 1780, was 
known as the Due de Cosse, was a very great personage 
indeed. He was Governor of Paris, Captain of the 
Hundred Swiss, and Grand Pander, 1 and was, in addi- 
tion, a man of considerable wealth. His friendship with 
Madame du Barry was of many years standing, and it will 
be remembered that on the death of the Duchesse de 
Villars, in 1772, the then favourite had succeeded in pro- 
curing for the duke's wife the post of dame cT atoms to 
Marie Antoinette. 2 

At what date the friendship between Brissac and 
Madame du Barry developed into intimacy is uncertain. 
Some writers place it as early as 1780 ; but in December 
of that year Hardy speaks of the duke attending his 
father's funeral at Saint-Sulpice, and " ogling with mis- 
placed affectation every member of the sex who crossed 
his path," conduct which greatly scandalised the worthy 
bookseller, and which M. Vatel considers entirely incon- 
sistent with the possession of a grande passion. On the 
other hand, in the summer of 1783, the Memoir es secrets 
give publicity to an unfounded rumour that the quondam 
favourite had had a child by Brissac ; 3 while Hardy 

1620. The family of Cosse-Brissac came originally from Anjou, and 
had had several distinguished members, including four Marichah de 
France. 

1 This office appears to have been hereditary in the family. 

2 The duchess did not share her husband's admiration for Madame 
du Barry. In the autumn of 1772 she declined to attend a supper 
given by the Due de La Vrilliere to the favourite, and when Brissac 
wrote her a harsh letter, demanding that she should show her regard 
for the Comtesse du Barry and never refuse to do anything that might 
please her, replied that " she would rather resign her post than do any- 
thing which might expose her to being put on a level with the 
favourite." 

8 Mimoires secrets, June 5, 1783. 

307 



MADAME DU BARRY 

reports that Madame du Barry was fast ruining her noble 
lover, 1 and both express their belief that the affair would 
end in the lady being relegated a second time to Pont-aux- 
Dames. From this it would appear that the liaison was not 
a new one, and the probability is that it began about 1782. 

However that may be, by the middle of the following 
year, as we have seen, the connection between the two was 
a matter of common knowledge. The duke passed a 
great part of his time at Louveciennes, while Madame du 
Barry often came to Paris, " enveloped in the strictest 
incognito," to spend a day or two with her lover at his 
hotel in the Rue de Grenelle Saint-Germain, and even had 
letters addressed to her there. What the poor, neglected 
Duchesse de Brissac, who, Creutz tells us, was " beloved 
and revered for her virtues and her charm of mind," had 
to say to these arrangements history does not record ; 
presumably she accepted the situation, as the majority of 
wives similarly circumstanced did in those days. 

The affair seems to have been regarded with an in- 
dulgence remarkable even in that age of easy morality. 
" The love for M. de Brissac," writes d'Allonville, as a 
rule, by no means inclined to be over-tender towards the 
ex-favourite, " did Madame du Barry the greatest honour. 
It would have been equivalent to the purification of her 
past life, had it not been illegitimate and doubly adul- 
terous from a moral point of view," 2 and this was the 
general opinion of their contemporaries. 

The duke wrote a number of love-letters to his 
mistress, some of which have fortunately been preserved, 
and " show the depth, and, if we may be excused the 
expression, the purity of his affection." 3 

1 Journal, July 13, 1783. 2 Mimoires, i. 154. 

8 Bingham's " Marriages of the Bourbons," ii. 428. 
308 



MADAME DU BARRY 

The Due de Brissac to Madame du Barry. 

" Sunday, 2.0 p.m. 

*A thousand loves, a thousand thanks, dear heart. 
This evening I shall be with you. Yes, I find my hap- 
piness in being loved by you. I have this evening, at 
eight o'clock, an appointment with Madame Lascases. I 
do not know what she wants with me. I shall go to her 
house, as I will not give her the trouble to come to mine, 
although no one can touch my heart but you. 

" Adieu ; I love you and for ever. I am waiting for 
my visitors, who, I think, will be many." 

The Due de Brissac to Madame du Barry. 

" La Fleche, August 26, 1786, 10 a.m. 

" I arrived here yesterday at one o'clock, and all the 
people who were to travel by post passed before me, so 
that, dear heart, I am waiting here for horses. I shall 
have to take a cross road, along which one can only go at 
a walking pace, and shall thus be delayed one day. I am 
none the less impatient to join you. Yes, dear heart, the 
moment for our reunion, not in spirit — for my thoughts 
are ever with you — but bodily, is a violent desire that 
nothing can appease. . . . Adieu, dear heart ; I kiss you 
thousands and thousands of times with all my heart. 
Expect me Tuesday or Wednesday early." 

The Due de Brissac to Madame du Barry. 

" Vensdosme (sic), August 16, 1789. 

" I should have wished, dear heart, that you could have 
informed me of your complete recovery, and that you 
had recovered your plumpness ; but you say nothing 

309 



MADAME DU BARRY 

about either. Nevertheless, dear heart, I must rejoice at 
your new fit of laziness, which is a strange thing for you, 
since it makes me hope that you will not be so much 
away from me. . . . Dear friend, I must now go and 
inspect my troops and leave you. I must tell you that 
I love you and how happy I shall be to see you again in 
as good health as I wish you to be." 

The Due de Brissac to Madame du Barry. 

" Angers, August 29, Noon. 

"... What a wise and philosophic letter is yours ot 
the 22nd, Madame la Comtesse! yes, indeed, it is necessary 
to speak of hope and philosophy and of patience also when 
far from you, and when the States-General work so slowly 
on the truly important matters which all France awaits, 
and which ought to tranquillise her . . . 

"I wish I could share with you the splendid crop of 
fruit that the beautiful Angevin Ceres has procured us 
this year ; but it would be neither wise nor possible to 
attempt to send you any, for the municipalities are afraid 
of the people, who, not content with the necessaries of 
life, wish to appropriate the luxuries. 

" But adieu, adieu, Madame la Comtesse ; it is nearly 
noon, and I intend going to dine at Brissac. I offer 
you my respects, and my thanks for the punctuality with 
which you write to me. My only joys are the reception 
of your letters, the thought of you, and the everlasting 
affection I have for you, and which I offer you with my 
whole heart. 

" I might have received a letter from you yesterday, 
but I did not." 



310 



MADAME DU BARRY 

The Due de Brissac to Madame du Barry. 

"The Tuileries, Wednesday, November u, 1789. 

" I am going to remain in bed, dear heart, so that my 
cold may be better to-morrow, and that I may be a more 
pleasant companion for you than I should be if I were as 
ill as I am now. This cold is the consequence of bilious- 
ness, which comes from the stagnation of a too long stay 
in Paris, to which I am unaccustomed, and will end in 
killing me or sending me mad, if I am not soon allowed 
to change my residence. I hope that I shall ; but I do 
not speak to you of it for fear that premature rejoicing 
may retard it. 

" Adieu, dear friend. I love you and kiss you a thou- 
sand times from the heart which is the most tender of our 
two — I mean mine — but I will not erase what my pen has 
written, for I love to think that our hearts are one for 
ever. Adieu till to-morrow. Everything that happens 
appears to me mysterious and foolish, and the only wisdom 
is for us to be together. Adieu, affectionate friend ; adieu, 
dear heart. I love you and kiss you." 1 

The affection of the devoted Brissac does not appear to 
have altogether consoled Madame du Barry for all that 
she had lost by the death of Louis XV. In 1783, Belleval, 
"her chevau-Uger^' 'paid her a visit at Louveciennes, and 
found her as beautiful as ever ; " indeed her beauty seemed 
more remarkable and more perfect." On the other hand, 
she gave him the impression of being sad and lonely. 
" Instead of the laughter of former days, the tears welled 
from her eyes. She harped always on the past, in which 
I saw, with pity, she took refuge as much as possible, for 

1 Vatel's Hlstoire de Madame du Barry, in. passim. 
3" 



MADAME DU BARRY 

it was worth more to her than the present. When I left 
her, she gave me her hand and said adieu to me in a voice 
full of feeling." 1 

In the spring of that same year, Madame du Barry com- 
muted 50,000 livres per annum which had been secured 
to her by Louis XV. on the rentes of the Hotel de Ville 
for a sum of 1,200,000 livres. Even that zealous cham- 
pion of the lady, M. Vatel, feels bound to protest against 
this "senseless munificence" on the part of the Govern- 
ment, and declares that she received at least half a million 
francs more than her claim was worth. If such were the 
case, however, her good fortune could not have benefited 
her very much, as the news that she was in possession of 
a large sum of money brought down upon her a whole 
horde of clamorous creditors. Amongst others, the 
Marquis de Claveyron, the second husband of Sophie de 
Tournon, poor Adolphe du Barry's widow, put in a claim 
for his wife's dot, and. compelled the countess to give 
security for the payment of the interest thereon. This 
demand must have been particularly annoying to Madame 
du Barry, for not only does the interest in question appear 
to have been regularly paid up to that date, but one of 
the reasons given by her niece for dropping her first 
husband's name in 1780 had been the desire to dissociate 
herself from a family which had caused so much scandal. 
She had been, she declared, at the time of her marriage to 
the " viscount " in entire ignorance of the position of the 
Comtesse du Barry ; but, having ascertained the truth, her 
virtue would no longer permit her to bear the same name ! 
She was ready enough, it appeared, to acknowledge the 
relationship when there was anything to be gained by so 
doing. 

* Souvenirs (Fun Chevau-Uger, p. 136. 
31? 



MADAME DU BARRY 

One day in the year 1782 a very pretty young woman 
had called at Louveciennes, informed Madame du Barry 
that she was a descendant of an illegitimate branch of 
the House of Valois, and, apparently unaware that the 
lady before her was no longer a persona grata at Court, 
had begged her to present a petition on her behalf to 
Louis XVI., begging for the restoration of certain estates 
which had been granted to her family by Henri I., but had 
subsequently reverted to the Crown. This young woman 
was none other than the notorious Comtesse de la Motte, 
the adventuress whose machinations got the poor Cardinal 
de Rohan into such terrible hot water ; and when the 
famous Diamond Necklace affair came on for trial, in 
1786, before the Parliament of Paris, the ex-favourite 
was one of the witnesses examined. 

Madame du Barry's evidence does not appear to have 
been of much importance, and the only interesting part 
of it was her statement that on hearing that the order 
sent by La Motte to the jeweller Bohmer was signed 
"Marie Antoinette de France," she had exclaimed, "Why, 
here is no forgery there ; that is her signature ! " as she 
had remembered that the petition which she had been 
requested to present to the King bore the signature, "Marie 
Antoinette de France, de Saint-Remy de Valois." However, 
the evidence against the adventuress was too overwhelming 
for this testimony in her favour to carry any weight. 1 

In her Memoires justificatifs, published in London shortly 
before her death, La Motte violently attacked Madame 
du Barry and asserted that the forged letters had been 
fabricated at the ex-favourite's house ; but the state- 
ments of so worthless a woman are, of course, utterly 
undeserving of credence. 

1 Vatel's Histoire de Madame du "Barry, iii. 70. 
313 



MADAME DU BARRY 

Apart from the above-mentioned incidents, and a visit 
which she received from the ambassadors whom Tippoo 
Sahib sent to France in 1788 to seek assistance against the 
English, and who came to Louveciennes to pay their court 
to its fair owner, in the belief that she was the mistress of 
the reigning and not of the late King, there is little in 
Madame du Barry's life to call for remark until the 
Revolution. She lived entirely at Louveciennes, visited 
occasionally by some stranger of distinction, " who came 
to see her as the most curious relic of the last reign,'* 
and by a few intimate friends. The Marquise de Brunoy, 
wife of the spendthrift son of the famous financier, Paris 
de Montmartel, Madame de Souza, the Portuguese 
Ambassadress, and Madame Vigee Lebrun, the painter, 
were almost the only friends of her own sex whom she 
saw ; and these, with the Due de Brissac and a M. Mon- 
ville, " an amiable and very elegant person," who lived 
in a chateau modelled on a Chinese pagoda in the midst 
of an estate which he called " The Desert," seem to 
have formed her circle. 

In the Souvenirs of Madame Lebrun we find some 
interesting information about life at Louveciennes during 
these years. The magnificence of the little chateau, the 
writer tells us, which, with its busts, vases, columns, rare 
marbles, and other precious objects, " gave you the im- 
pression that you were in the house of the mistress of 
several sovereigns, who had all enriched her with their 
gifts," contrasted oddly with the simplicity observed by 
the countess both in her toilette and manner of living. 
Both in summer and winter Madame du Barry wore 
only white muslin or cotton-cambric peignoirs, and every 
day, no matter how severe the weather, she walked in 
the park and sometimes beyond it, " without feeling any 

3H 



MADAME DU BARRY 

ill effects, so much strengthened was she by her country 
life." 

In the evenings, when Madame Lebrun and her hostess 
were alone, they would sit by the fire, and the latter 
would occasionally speak of Louis XV. and his Court, 
" always with the greatest respect for the one and very 
cautiously about the other." But, as she avoided all 
details, and it was evident that she preferred not to 
mention the subject, her conversation struck the disap- 
pointed auditor as rather uninteresting. 

Madame Lebrun expresses her conviction that Madame 
du Barry was "a good woman both in words and actions," 
and says that she was most benevolent and assisted all the 
poor people at Louveciennes. On one occasion, they went 
to visit a woman in the village who had just given birth 
to a child and was in great want. "'What!' cried 
Madame du Barry, 'you have had neither linen, wine, 
nor soup ? ' ' Alas ! neither, madame.' As soon as she 
returned to the chateau, Madame du Barry sent for 
her housekeeper and the other servants who had not 
executed her orders. I cannot describe to you the indig- 
nation she was in, and she ordered them to make up a 
parcel of linen in her presence and take it at once to the 
poor woman, with soup and Bordeaux wine." 

Every day after dinner they adjourned to the famous 
pavilion for coffee. The first time Madame Lebrun 
entered it, the ex-favourite said : " It was in this room 
that Louis XV. did me the honour to dine with me. 
There was a tribune above for the musicians who played 
during the meal." When the Due de Brissac happened 
to be at Louveciennes, which appears to have been pretty 
frequently, he accompanied them ; but it was his habit, as 
soon as he had finished his coffee, to throw himself on one 

3i5 



MADAME DU BARRY 

of the luxurious couches in the salon and indulge in a 
siesta, leaving the ladies to stroll about the grounds. 
Madame Lebrun, however, is careful to tell us that 
" nothing either in his manner or in that of Madame du 
Barry would have caused any one to suppose that he was 
anything more than a friend of the mistress of the 
chateau." 1 

The favourable opinion which Madame Lebrun formed 
of Madame du Barry was shared by another person who saw 
her for the first time about the same period, and whose 
impressions of the lady are of considerable interest, as 
from 1 751-1764 he had occupied the post of '* introducteur 
des ambassadeurs" and would, therefore, hardly have failed 
to remark upon the fact, had he observed in the ex- 
favourite any of that vulgarity and bad taste with which 
so many historians have charged her. 

This was the Comte Dufort de Cheverny, who met 
Madame du Barry, in 1785, at the house of a certain Don 
Olavidez de Pilos, a wealthy Spanish gentleman, who had 
fled to France to escape the vengeance of the Inquisition, 2 
and had settled in Paris, where, according to Grimm, he 
speedily forgot his misfortunes " amidst our theatres, our 
philosophers, our Aspasias, and sometimes our Phrynes." 
Madame du Barry, Cheverny tells us, had " a marked 

1 Souvenirs de Madame Vtgee Lebrun, i. 109, et seq. 

2 Don Olavidei. had been condemned as a heretic to the following 
penalties : (1) To make a public recantation of his errors, "without 
prejudice to the confiscation of all his goods." (2) To be confined eight 
years in a monastery and subjected to the most rigorous discipline. 
(3) To be afterwards exiled twenty leagues from any royal palace or 
important town. (4) Never to ride on horseback or in a coach. 
(5) Never to hold any office or enjoy any title. (6) Never to wear 
cloth, silk, or velvet, but to dress always in yellow serge. 

316 



MADAME DU BARRY 

veneration " for this victim of priestly intolerance, and was 
" so to speak at his orders," and when, therefore, Don 
Olavidez informed her that he had some friends who were 
extremely anxious to be presented to her, she readily 
agreed to gratify their desire. 

" It was freezing hard enough to freeze a stone," the 
chronicler continues. " She arrived alone in a carriage 
drawn by six horses. She was tall, extremely well made, 
and, in short, a very pretty woman in every respect. At 
the end of a quarter of an hour she was as much at her 
ease, with us as we were with her. My wife was the only 
other lady present. Madame du Barry paid marked 
attention to my wife and the master of the house, but was 
pleasant and amiable to all. President de Salaberry 1 and 
his nephew, the Chevalier de Pontgibault, 2 were there, and 
several others. She bore the brunt of the conversation, 
spoke of Louveciennes, and invited us to come and see it 
and dine with her. We accepted the invitation, but 
without naming any particular day. 

" Her pretty face was slightly flushed ; she told us that 
she took a cold bath every day. She showed us that 
under her long furred pelisse she had only her chemise 
and a very thin manteau de lit. Everything she wore was 
of such costly material, relics of her former splendour, 

1 Charles Victor Francois d'Irumberry de Salaberry, President of 
the Chambre des Comptes. He perished on the scaffold in 1 794. He 
was the father of Charles Maurice d'Irumberry, Comte de Salaberry, 
who fought in the wars in La Vendue and took a prominent part in 
politics after the Restoration, in which he distinguished himself by his 
reactionary tendencies. 

2 The Chevalier de Pontgibault, or Pontgibaud, as the name is 
"ommonly spelt, had accompanied La Fayette to America. His 
MemoireSy wherein he relates his experiences during the War of Indepen- 
dence, are of considerable interest. 

317 



MADAME DU BARRY 

that I have never seen finer batiste. She insisted that we 
should feel her petticoats, to prove to us how little she 
cared for the cold. 

" The dinner was delightful ; she told us a hundred 
anecdotes about Versailles, all in her own style, and she 
was very interesting to listen to. Seeing that Pontgibault 
wore the Cross of Cincinnatus, she related to us the fol- 
lowing story : * When I was at Versailles my name made 
a great impression, and I had six lackeys called footmen, 
the finest men that could be found ; but they were 
the noisiest and most unruly rascals in all the world. 
The ringleader of them gave me so much trouble that he 
saw plainly that I should be obliged to dismiss him. It 
was at the beginning of the war in America, and he came 
to me and asked for letters of recommendation. I gave 
them to him, and he left me with a well-filled purse, and 
I was only too glad to get rid of him. A year ago he 
came to see me, and he was wearing the Cross of 
Cincinnatus.' We all laughed at the story, except the 
Chevalier de Pontgibault. 

" The conversation after dinner took a more serious 
turn. She spoke with a charming frankness about the 
Due de Choiseul, and expressed regret for not having 
been on friendly terms with him ; she told us of all the 
trouble she had taken to bring about a better understand- 
ing, and said that, had it not been for his sister, the 
Duchesse de Gramont, she would have succeeded in the 
end ; she did not complain of any one and said nothing 
spiteful." 

Cheverny happening to mention that once, during her 
favour, he had made an unsuccessful attempt to obtain a 
post at Court for one of his friends, Madame du Barry 
exclaimed : " Why did you not come to me ? I wanted 

318 



MADAME DU BARRY 

to oblige everybody. Ah ! if M. de Choiseul had but 
known me, instead of yielding to the counsels of inter- 
ested persons, he would have kept his place and have 
given me some good advice, instead of which I was forced 
to fall into the hands of people whose interest it was to 
ruin us, and the King was no better off." 

When she had gone, Cheverny and his friends were 
unanimous in praise of the good humour with which she 
accepted her changed fortunes, and all agreed that they no 
longer felt any surprise at the influence she had exercised 
over a blast old man of sixty-four, "as she must have 
been a charming mistress." 1 

1 Memoir es de Cheverny, ii. z?.,et seq. 



319 



CHAPTER XXI 

The year 1789 — Attacks upon Madame du Barry — Arrest 
and short detention of the Due de Brissac — Letter of the 
ex-favourite to Marie Antoinette — The robbery of the night 
of January 10, 1 791, at Louveciennes — Two thousand loins 
reward: diamond and jewels lost — Violent articles against 
Madame du Barry in Les Revolutions de Paris — The burglars 
are apprehended in London — Madame du Barry's three 
journeys to England in quest of her stolen jewels — Her 
portrait by Cosway. 

The year 1789 arrived. Posing for her portrait to 
Madame Lebrun in the gardens of Louveciennes, 
Madame du Barry was startled by the distant boom 
of the cannon which announced the taking of the Bastille 
and the end of the old regime, and which so frightened 
poor Madame Lebrun that she rushed off home the same 
day and never returned to finish the picture. 1 

However, the former favourite continued to live quietl) 
at Louveciennes, and except that she was made the heroine 
of a satirical and somewhat licentious poem by Saint- 
Just, the future colleague of Robespierre, and was attacked 

1 The head, however, had already been painted and the bust and 
arms traced out, and some years after the death of Madame du Barry 
the artist completed it. Madame Lebrun tells us that she painted two 
other portraits of her friend — the first, at half-length, " in a peignoir 
and straw hat " ; the other, representing the countess " robed in white 
satin, with a wreath in one hand, and one of her arms resting on a 
pedestal." Both of these pictures had been commissioned by Brissac. 

320 



MADAME DU BARRY 

in an obscure newspaper called Le Petit Journal du Palais- 
Royal, ou Affiches, Annonces, et Avis divers, which only 
survived for six numbers, no notice appears to have been 
taken of her during the first year of the Revolution. 1 

Her lover, the Due de Brissac, in spite of the fact that 
he was, to a certain extent, in sympathy with the new ideas, 
was not so fortunate. A fortnight after the fall of the 
Bastille, while on his way to visit his estates in Anjou, he 
was arrested at Durtal, near La Fleche, and a courier 
despatched, by the local authorities, to Paris to ascertain if 
his " patriotism " was under suspicion, and whether he was 
to be imprisoned there or sent back to the capital. After 
a short detention, he was released, or contrived to effect 
his escape, and no further attempt was made to molest 
him for some time ; but the incident foreshadowed the 
terrible fate which awaited him three years later. 

\ 

In the Notices historiques appended to his Memoires de 
la Reine de France, by LafFont d'Aussonne, the following 
passage occurs : 

" When the Revolution broke out, the house of Madame 
du Barry became the rendezvous of all the friends of 
Louis XVI. and the Queen. The Gardes-du-corps who 
escaped the massacre of October 6 dragged themselves 

1 Organt, poime en vingt chants, au Vatican, 1789, was the title of Saint- 
Just's production. Madame du Barry, who figures under the name of 
Adelinde, is thus described : 

" Ces yeux errants sous leur paup'the brum, 

Ces bras d'ivoire etendus mollement, 

Ce sein de lait que le soupir agite 

Et sur lequel deux fraises surnageaient, 

Et cette bouche et vermeille et petite, 

Ou le corail et les perles brillaient, 

Au dieu d' amour les baisers demandaient." 

321 X 



MADAME DU BARRY 

from Versailles to Louveciennes, and the countess nursed 
them in her chateau as their own relatives would have 
done. The Queen, informed at Paris of this amiable and 
generous conduct on the part of the. countess, charged 
some nobles in her confidence to go to Louveciennes and 
carry thither her sincere thanks. Upon this, Madame 
du Barry had the honour to address to the Queen the 
words I am about to transcribe. I had them from one 
of her relatives : 

" * Madame, — The young men who were wounded only 
regret that they did not die along with their comrades for 
a princess so perfect and so worthy of all respect as Your 
Majesty assuredly is. What I am doing for these brave 
soldiers is much less than they deserve. Had I had no 
waiting-women or other servants, I would have attended 
to your guards myself. I console, I honour them for the 
wounds they have received, when I reflect that, but for 
their devotion and their wounds, Your Majesty might be 
no longer alive. 

" * Luciennes is at your disposal, Madame. Is it not to 
your favour and kindness that I owe it? 1 All that. T 
possess is derived from the Royal Family, and I have too 
much good feeling and gratitude ever to forget that. The 
late King, by a sort of presentiment, made me accept a 
number of valuable presents before sending me away from 
his person. I had the honour to offer you this treasure 
at the time of the meeting of the Notables. 2 I offer it 

1 She means that it was due to the magnanimity of the King and 
Queen that she had been allowed to retain Louveciennes after the 
death of Louis XV. 

2 In February 1 787, Calonne, the Comptroller-General, called 
together an extraordinary council or assembly of notables, nominated 

322 



MADAME DU BARRY 

you again, Madame, with eagerness and in all sincerity ; 
you have so many expenses to bear and benefits without 
number to bestow. Permit me, I beg, to render unto 
Caesar the things that are Caesar's. 

" ' Your Majesty's most faithful subject and servant, 

"'CoMTESSE DU BARRY.' " 

Laffont d'Aussonne is not a chronicler in whom very 
much confidence is reposed, and this, combined with the 
fact that the style and orthography of the above letter are 
much superior to those of Madame du Barry's which we 
possess, has caused its authenticity to be doubted. M. 
Vatel, however, discovered that two of the wounded Gardes- 
du-corps did take refuge at Louveciennes after the events 
of October 6, and that their names were Marion de 
Barghon-Monteil and Lefebvre de Lubersac, and his con- 
clusion is that the circumstances as stated by Laffont 
d'Aussonne are correct, though the letter is probably a 
paraphrase of the one written by the ex-favourite. There 
was certainly nothing surprising in Marie Antoinette send- 
ing to thank Madame du Barry for her care of the soldiers 
wounded in her defence, while it was but natural that the 
favourite should acknowledge the Queen's condescension. 

With regard to the offer made at the time of the 
meeting of the Notables, M. Vatel professes himself 
unable to discover any proof of this " in spite of 
persevering researches " ; but it is certain that the King 
received a number of offers of this kind, both from private 
individuals and corporations. 1 

by the King, and proposed to them the reform of the entire system of 
administration and taxation. This assembly, however, composed almost 
entirely of privileged persons, was unfavourable to the proposed reforms, 
and Calonne soon afterwards resigned. 

1 Vatel's Histoire de Madame du Barry, iii. 132, 

323 



MADAME DU BARRY 

Every day the situation became more serious ; every 
day it became more and more apparent that for the 
despotism of the Crown France was substituting the 
infinitely worse despotism of the mob. Most of the great 
nobles followed the example of the Comte d'Artois and 
took refuge across the frontier ; but Brissac, though well 
aware of the fate which awaited him were the enemies of 
the Monarchy to triumph, courageously refused to desert 
his sovereign and remained at his post. 

And Madame du Barry remained too. Love, and 
possibly also the knowledge that her departure would 
almost inevitably entail the confiscation of her property, 
kept her at Louveciennes — that beautiful spot from whose 
terrace she could perceive the spires of the great city 
so soon to run red with blood. Nor at first did she have 
any reason to regret her decision, for the year 1790, so 
fruitful in great events, was for her as uneventful as had 
been its predecessor 1 ; and it is quite possible that the 
storms of the Revolution might have passed her by 
unscathed had it not been for an unfortunate incident, 
which served to draw public attention to her ill-gotten 
wealth, and was ultimately the means of bringing her to 
the scaffold. 

On January 10, 1791, Madame du Barry attended a fete 
given by the Due de Brissac at his hotel in the Rue de 
Grenelle Saint-Germain. The countess had, it appears, 

1 She was, however, the object of an attack in Marat's journal, 
VAml du Peupk, which, in its issue of Thursday, November 11, 1790, 
informed its readers that the National Assembly cost only a quarter of 
the money which " that old sinner," Louis XV., had squandered on his 
favourite wanton, and added that the writer of the article had seen the 
Du Barry, twenty years before, " covered with diamonds and giving 
away the louis d'or of the nation by the basketful to her thieves of 
relations." 

3H 



MADAME DU BARRY 

intended to return to Louveciennes that evening, but, at 
the duke's suggestion, changed her mind and slept at the 
Hotel de Brissac, where a suite of rooms was always 
reserved for her use. Well indeed would it have been 
for her had she carried out her original intention, as, 
early on the morrow, a messenger arrived in hot haste 
from Louveciennes with the news that the previous 
night a gang of burglars had broken into the chateau 
and made off with the greater part of the countess's 
jewellery. 1 

In great agitation, Madame du Barry at once returned 
home, gave information of the robbery to the local 
authorities, and then sent for her jeweller, Rouen, to con- 
sult him as to the best means of recovering her stolen 
treasures. 

Now, Rouen was a very capable craftsman and an 
honest man ; but he appears to have been singularly 
wanting in discretion ; for no sooner was he acquainted 
with the extent of the disaster than he hastened back to 
Paris, and, without giving a thought to the delicate 
position occupied by his patroness in the face of the 

1 Madame du Barry's jewel-cases were kept in the ante-chamber 
leading to her bedroom.. A soldier belonging to the Suisses rouges, 
quartered at Courbevoie, was on guard outside the chateau during the 
night ; and, before leaving home, the countess had given orders that, in 
the event of her not returning till the morrow, the gardener was to 
sleep in the ante-chamber. As, however, it was not easy to put up a 
bed in this room, Morin, her head valet-de-chambre, had taken upon 
himself to dispense with the attendance of the gardener ; while the 
robbers had taken the precaution to entertain the Swiss at a neighbour- 
ing cabaret, with the result that he became temporarily unfit for duty. 
Then, with the aid of a ladder which had been left near the house, 
they mounted to the window of the ante-chamber, broke the outside 
shutters, cut out a pane of glass, opened the window, and ransacked the 
room at their leisure. 

325 



MADAME DU BARRY 

Revolution, caused a handbill to be circulated through 
the city bearing this sensational title : 

" Two Thousand Louis Reward." 
" Diamonds and Jewels lost." 

Then follows a portentously long list of the stolen 
treasures : diamonds, rubies, sapphires, and emeralds in 
every shape and form ; rings, pendants, earrings, watches, 
and bracelets ; " a pair of shoe-buckles composed of 
eighty-four brilliants, weighing seventy-seven carats and 
a quarter " ; "a cross of sixteen brilliants, weighing eight 
to ten grains each " ; " a beautiful pair of sprigs 
composed of large brilliants, valued at 120,000 livres " ; 
" a string of four hundred pearls, weighing four to five 
grains each " ; "a pair of sleeve-buttons consisting of an 
emerald, a sapphire, a yellow diamond, and a ruby, the 
whole encircled by rose diamonds, weighing thirty-six 
to forty grains " ; "a pair of bracelets of six rows of 
pearls weighing four to five grains each ; at the bottom 
of the bracelet is an emerald surmounted by a cipher in 
diamonds, an L on one and a D and B on the other, and 
two padlocks of four brilliants, weighing eight to ten 
grains." It was a veritable inventory of Golconda. 1 

The effect of this ill-judged production on the minds of 
the excited, half-starved " patriots" who perused it can 
well be imagined. Instantly, the revolutionary Press, ever 
on the alert to fan the flame of popular resentment, rang 
with denunciations of the ex-mistress. Prudhomme's 
journal, Les Revolutions de Paris, led the way and pub- 
lished an article in which it accused Madame du Barry 

1 See the list of the stolen jewellery published by the Goncourts in 
La Du Harry, p. 373, et seq. 

326 



MADAME DU BARRY 

of inventing the robbery : " It is thought that the lady, 
fearing that her income would be cut short, wanted to 
excite pity by representing herself as the victim of a 
regrettable incident and gaining thereby the indulgence of 
the inflexible National Assembly." 

Elsewhere the same journal made a violent attack on 
the countess, who, it alleged, had, on discovering the 
robbery, driven off to Courbevoie in a coach and four, 
and obtained from the commanding officer of the Gardes 
Suisses a body of fifty men to arrest the drunken sentry, 
w a young man eighteen years of age, of an amiable 
appearance and very honest." "The theft of all the 
diamonds of Golconda," continued the indignant writer, 
" would not justify such a violation of the rights of man 
and of the citizen, and, moreover, is it a sufficiently grave 
offence to deserve the punishment of being placed in 
irons, on the simple suspicion of a woman, still proud 
of having been for a moment the first courtesan of the 
empire ? " 

Madame du Barry appears to have been too much 
occupied in endeavouring to trace her lost property to 
pay much attention to the attacks of Prudhomme and his 
confreres, which, however, were to bear fruit in due season. 
But, though she engaged the services of Barthelemy Piles, 
one of the most skilful police-agents of the day, nothing 
was heard of the stolen jewels for upwards of a month, 
when a courier arrived from England, with the infor- 
mation that the thieves had been arrested in London. 
The gang consisted of five persons : three German Jews, 
a Frenchman, who called himself a broker and wore the 
uniform of the National Guard, and an Englishman 
named Harris, who acted as interpreter, and who, accord- 

327 



MADAME DU BARRY 

ing to the Public Advertiser (February 17, 1791), had 
already undergone a term of penal servitude. 

On arriving in London, they had gone to an inn and 
engaged a single room, from which it is to be presumed 
that the old proverb which tells us that there is honour 
among thieves did not hold good in their case, and that 
each of them was fearful of letting his confederates out 
of his sight. They had no money, but quieted the 
landlord's objections by telling him that by the morrow 
they would be in possession of a considerable sum. They 
then went out and called upon a rich jeweller, named Simon, 
to whom they offered a portion of their booty at about 
one-sixth of its value. Simon paid them ^1500, and 
then inquired if they had any more to sell. They replied 
in the affirmative, whereupon, his suspicions aroused, 
the jeweller laid information against them before the Lord 
Mayor, who immediately issued a warrant for their arrest. 

The day after receiving the news of the apprehension 
of the burglars, Madame du Barry set out for England, 
accompanied by one of Brissac's aides-de-camp, the 
Chevalier d'Escourre, the jeweller Rouen, a waiting- 
woman, and two men-servants, and arrived in London 
on February 20. " Madame du Barry," writes Horace 
Walpole to the Berrys on February 26, " is come over 
to recover her jewels, of which she has been robbed — not 
by the National Assembly, but by four Jews, who have 
been seized here and committed to Newgate. Though 
the late Lord Barrymore acknowledged her husband 
to be of his noble blood, will she own the present Earl as 
a relation when she finds him turned strolling player P 1 

1 For an account of the theatrical undertakings of Richard, Earl of 
Barrymore, see Mr. J. B. Robinson's interesting work, " The Last 
Earls of Barrymore.'' 

328 



MADAME DU BARRY 

If she regains her diamonds, perhaps Mrs. Hastings 
may carry her to Court." 1 

Two days later he returns to the subject : 

" Madame du Barry was to go and swear to her 
jewels before the Lord Mayor. Boydell, who is a little 
better bred than Monsieur Bailly, 2 made excuses for being 
obliged to administer the oath chez lui> but begged 
she would name her hour, and when she did, he 
fetched her himself in the state-coach and had a Mayor- 
Royal banquet ready for her. She has got most of her 
jewels again. I want the King to send her four 
Jews to the National Assembly and tell them it is the 
change or la monnaie of Lord George Gordon, the 
Israelite." 3 

In a subsequent letter (March 5) Walpole writes : " I 
have not a tittle to add — but that the Lord Mayor did 
not fetch Madame du Barry in the City-Royal coach, but 
kept her to dinner. She is gone, but returns in April." 

The lady had, in fact, left England on March 1. During 
her stay she had been confronted with the thieves, but 
had stated that she had never seen any of them before. 
On the other hand, Rouen had identified the jewels, in 
spite of the fact that several of them had been defaced, 
and had declared them to be " the result of his laborious 
toil." 

The expenses of this first journey, which the Due de 
Brissac, who looked upon himself as the involuntary cause 

1 " Mrs. Hastings was supposed, by the party violence of the day, to 
have received immense bribes of diamonds.'' — Note of Wright. 

2 Jean Sylvain Bailly, Mayor of Paris, the celebrated astronomer. 

8 Lord George Gordon, who was then undergoing a sentence of live 
years imprisonment for libel, had appealed to the National Assembly to 
intercede for his release. 

329 



MADAME DU BARRY 

of the robbery, had insisted on defraying, amounted to 
6193 livres. 

At the end of a month, Madame du Barry was obliged 
to return to London, where a serious legal difficulty had 
arisen. As the robbery had been committed in a foreign 
country, the delinquents could not be brought to trial in 
England, nor, unless a special application was made for 
the purpose by the French Government, could they be 
even detained in custody or sent to France for trial. The 
utmost satisfaction that Madame du Barry could obtain 
would be to have her property restored to her, but before 
she could hope for this, many legal formalities must be 
complied with. 1 

The countess left Louveciennes on April 4 and arrived 
in London five days later. She was again accompanied by 
d'Escourre and Rouen, and was furnished by her bankers, 
the Vandengyers, with a letter of credit on Simmonds and 
Hankey, of London. She had also taken the precaution 
— a very necessary one at a time when everybody leaving 
France ran the risk of being promptly registered as an 
6migr6 and having their property confiscated — of procuring 
a passport from the Minister Montmorin. 2 

1 St. James's Chronicle, February 24, 1791. 

2 Here is the passport : 

"De Par Le Roy, 
" A tous officiers civils et militaires charges de surveiller et maintenir l'ordre 
public dans les differens departemens du royaume et a tous autres qu'il 
appartiendra ; salut. Nous vous mandons et ordonnons que vous ayiez 
a laisser passer librement la dame du Barry allant a Londres avec le 
S. d'E scours, chevalier de S. Louis, le S. Rouen, jouaillier, deux femmes et 
un valet de chambre et deux couriers. 

" Sans lui donner ni souffrir qu'il lui soit donne aucun empechement ; 
le present passe-port valable pour trots semaines seulement. 
" Donne a Paris, le 3 Avril 1791. 

Par Le Roy " Louis." 

330 



MADAME DU BARRY 

We have very little information about Madame du 
Barry's movements during this visit, the expenses of 
which amounted to over 15,000 livres, inclusive of the 
purchase of two English horses. She appears, however, 
to have found a welcome in very exclusive circles indeed, 
for, on April 17, Walpole writes to Miss Berry that the 
previous day the countess had dined with the Duke 
of Queensberry, and that among the guests was the 
Prince of Wales. It would be interesting to know 
what the First Gentleman in Europe and she who, 
for a brief period, had been the first lady in France 
thought of one another ; but, unfortunately, Walpole 
does not tell us. 

Madame du Barry reached Louveciennes on Saturday, 
May 21, but during the night of the 23 rd a courier 
arrived to inform her that her presence in London was 
indispensable, and, on the following day, she set out for 
England for the third time. In spite, however, of the 
powerful influences that she was able to enlist in her 
favour and the expenditure of a great deal of money, 
the affair dragged on — it seems to have been begun in 
a very careless manner and to have been conducted still 
more carelessly — and it was not until towards the end of 
August that it was finally decided that, as the robbery 
had not taken place within English jurisdiction, the 
burglars must be acquitted, and that Madame du Barry 
must obtain from the French courts a condemnation of 
the culprits and a declaration that the property was really 
hers. Pending the proof of her claim to their possession, 
the jewels were placed in a sealed box and deposited with 
Messrs. Ransom, Morley, and Hammersley, bankers, of 
Pall Mall. 

During this, her third visit to England, Madame du 

331 



MADAME DU BARRY 

Barry rented a house in Bruton Street, Berkeley Square, 
and, notwithstanding her anxiety to regain possession of 
her beloved diamonds, seems to have had a very pleasant 
time. She mixed freely in English society, and we 
hear of her at several celebrated houses, notably at the 
Duke of Queensberry's, where Horace Walpole made her 
acquaintance and " had a good deal of frank conversation 
with her about Monsieur de Choiseul." 1 She also visited 
some of the French tmigrts who had found refuge in 
London — a very unwise proceeding, as it subsequently 
proved — went to St. Paul's, the Tower, and Ranelagh, 
gave away a considerable sum in charity, and made 
numerous purchases : a portrait of the Prince of Wales 
and another of the Duchess of Rutland, " two English 
books," for the Prince de Beauvau, with whom she 
was now on very friendly terms, and Thomas Paine's 
"Rights of Man," and a Shakespeare in parts, for 
herself. 

Perhaps, however, the most interesting incident of her 
stay was her visit to the studio of the celebrated painter 
Cosway, to whom she sat for the charming miniature 
portrait which Conde's fine engraving has perpetuated 
for us, and which is certainly the most pleasing of all 
the portraits of Madame du Barry. 

The former favourite is represented in a white gown 
with a high waist, a toilette which seems to anticipate the 
fashion of the Directorv. Her head is turned slightly 
aside, a string of pearls encircles her throat, her hair is 
loose and falls in luxuriant curls over her shoulders, her 
eyes sparkle with merriment through their half-closed lids, 
a half-smile plays round her mouth. It is indeed hard 
to believe that this exquisite miniature, " in which one 

1 Letter to the Berrys, August 23, 1791. 
33* 



MADAME DU BARRY 

seems to see the portrait of the Voluptuousness of the 
eighteenth century : a Bacchante of Greuze," 1 is that of 
a woman in her forty -eighth year. 

Madame du Barry landed in France on August 25, 
1 79 1, and proceeded to Louveciennes, where she re- 
mained until October 14, 1792, that is to say, for more 
than thirteen months. 

1 E. and J. de Goncourt's La Du Barry, p. 215. 



333 



CHAPTER XXII 

The Due de Brissac appointed to the command of the Garde 
constitutionelle — Outcry against him in the Press — His arrest 
decreed by the Assembly — Letter of Madame du Barry to the 
duke — Brissac is arrested and conducted to Orleans for trial — 
Letter of his daughter, the Duchesse de Mortemart, to 
Madame du Barry — Examination of Brissac — His bequest to 
Madame du Barry — His letter to her from Orleans — The 
duke's aide-de-camp, Maussabre, arrested at Louveciennes — 
The Courrier frangais announces the arrest of Madame du 
Barry — Order for the transfer of Brissac and the Orleans 
prisoners to Paris — They are massacred at Versailles — 
Brissac's head brought to Louveciennes — Correspondence 
between Madame du Barry and Madame de Mortemart on the 
death of the duke. 

During Madame du Barry's absence in England, impor- 
tant changes had taken place in France. Since the flight 
to Varennes, in the previous June, it was impossible for 
the country to have any further confidence in its King, 
and although the unhappy monarch continued to reign, 
his authority was reduced to the merest shadow. He 
was still, however, permitted to retain most of the out- 
ward and visible signs of sovereignty ; and one of the 
first acts of the Legislative Assembly, when it met on 
October i, 1791, was to appoint a Garde constitutionelle \ 
to take the place of his disbanded bodyguard. 

This Garde constitutionelle ', which consisted of 600 
cavalry and 1200 infantry chosen from the troops of 

334 



MADAME DU BARRY 

the line or the National Guards, was recruited very 
differently from the old Maison du Roi y and no one was 
allowed to be enrolled unless he had given " proofs of 
citizenship." The choice, however, of its commander 
and one-third of the officers was left to the King ; and 
Louis, in spite of the remonstrances of Marie Antoinette, 
who still regarded with disfavour all who continued on terms 
of intimacy with Madame du Barry, offered the command 
to Brissac, 1 trusting, in his secret heart, that the latter 
would give a very liberal interpretation to the intentions 
of the Assembly with regard to the proofs of citizenship. 

The duke accepted the appointment, though with many 
misgivings, for the dangers attending his new office were 
obvious. Nor were his fears groundless, as, before many 
weeks had passed, hostile criticisms of the manner in 
which he was discharging his duties began to appear in 
the Press. These soon changed to violent denunciations, 
and, finally, the Legislative Assembly intervened, and on 
the night of May 30-31, 1792, after a lengthy and acri- 
monious debate, that body decreed that the Gurde consti- 
tutionelle should be disbanded, and its commander be 
forthwith arrested and arraigned on a charge of treason 
before the High Court, then sitting at Orleans. 

It was one o'clock on the morning of the 31st when the 
decree was passed, and Gabriel de Choiseul, who was 
present, hurried to the Tuileries to inform the King and 
Queen. Louis at once sent a message to Brissac's 
apartments in the palace, urging him to make his escape 

1 According to Gabriel, Due de Choiseul, when the flight of the 
Royal Family was first contemplated, Brissac was suggested as the man 
best qualified to carry out the scheme ; but the proposal was rejected, 
as it was feared that he might confide the secret to Madame du Barry, 
and that she might reveal it. 

335 



MADAME DU BARRY 

without a moment's delay. Brissac, however, was not the 
man to desert his post, and answered that he would remain 
and abide by the consequences. He then rose, and spent 
the rest of the night in writing a long letter to his mis- 
tress, which he despatched to Louveciennes by Maussabre, 
one of his aides-de-camp. 

It would appear to have been on the previous evening, 
while the debate in the Assembly was proceeding, that 
Madame du Barry wrote to the duke as follows : 

Madame Du Barry to the Due de Brissac. 

" Wednesday, 1 1 o'clock. 1 

" I was seized with a mortal fear, M. le Due, when 
M. de Maussabre was announced. He assured me that you 
were in good health, and that you had the tranquillity of 
a good conscience. But this is not enough for my interest 
in you ; I am far from you ; I know not what you intend 
to do. Of course you will answer that you yourself do 
not know, and I am sending the abbe 2 to find out what is 
happening and what you are doing. Oh ! why am I not 
near you ? You would receive the consolation of tender 
and faithful friendship. I know that you would have 
nothing to fear did reason and honesty reign in the 
Assembly. 

1 M. Vatel is of opinion that this letter was written on July 6, that 
is to say, some days offer the arrest of the duke and his departure for 
Orleans, which took place on May 31. But, in her examination on 
the 9th Brumaire (October 19, 1793), Madame du Barry, when 
questioned as to the date, answered that she wrote the letter " on the 
same day that he (Brissac) started for Orleans, or the evening before." She 
added that it was never sent, " as she had news of him from one of his 
people." 

2 The Abbe Billiardi, of the Foreign Office, a great friend of the 
lovers. 

336 



MADAME DU BARRY 

" Adieu ! I have no time to say more. The abbe is in 
my room, and I want to send him off as quickly as pos- 
sible. I shall not rest until I know what has become of 
you. I am well assured that you have done your duty 
with regard to the formation of the King's Guard, and on 
this point I have no fear for you. Your conduct has been 
so open ever since you have resided at the Tuileries that 
they will find no charge against you. Your ' patriotic 
actions ' have been so numerous that indeed I wonder 
what they can impute to you. 

" Adieu. Let me hear from you, and never doubt my 
affection for you." 1 

At six o'clock that morning Brissac was arrested and 
conducted the same day to Orleans. The popular 
exasperation against him was such that special precautions 
had to be taken to guard him against attack ; but the 
journey was uneventful, and, a few days later, Madame 
du Barry received, through Maussabre, a letter from the 
duke announcing his safe arrival. Although Brissac would 
not appear to have shown much anxiety at his position, 
probably from a desire not to alarm his friends, the latter 
were fully alive to the grave dangers which threatened 
him ; and his daughter, the Duchesse de Mortemart, 
who had emigrated, with her husband, at the beginning 
of the Revolution and was now at Aix-la-Chapelle, wrote 
to Madame du Barry begging for information concerning 
her father. 

The Duchesse de Mortemart to Madame du Barry. 

" June 5. 
" Will you recognise my handwriting, Madame ? It is 

1 Tribunaux revolutionnaires, dossier de Madame du Barry, Archives 
nationaks. E. and J. de Goncourt's La Du Barry, p. 225, 

337 y 



MADAME DU BARRY 

three years since you saw it, and at a sad moment. 1 This 
is sadder still for your affection and mine. Ah ! how I 
have suffered for the last two days ! His courage, his 
firmness, the praises which are showered upon him, the 
regrets which are expressed, his innocence, nothing can 
quiet my agitated mind. M. de . . . 2 and myself wished 
to start the day before yesterday ; but several powerful 
persons dissuaded us from doing so, pointing out that it 
would be dangerous for my husband and be of no advan- 
tage to my father, and adding that the fact of his being an 
imigre would injure him. But I, Madame, could not I be 
of some service to him ? might it not be possible for me to 
see him ? Can it be imputed as a crime to a woman in 
delicate health to have gone to take the waters, and must 
it be visited on my father ? I cannot believe it, and it is 
the only thing of which I am afraid. If you think that I 
could be of any use to him either at Paris or Orleans, have 
the kindness to let me know, and I will fly thither. Is 
there any means of hearing from him or communicating 
with him ? Send me word, I entreat you, and I will 
hasten to take advantage of |it. I learned, through a man 
who is, perhaps, unknown to you " (the name, written 
between parentheses, is erased) " that you had gone to 

1 On leaving France, in 1789, Madame de Mortemart had written to 
Madame du Barry : " Madame, — I beg that you will accept my best 
thanks for the kindness you have always shown me, and believe that I 
deeply regret not being able to see you before leaving. I feel very sad 
at the thought that I shall be so long without seeing my father, and 
that I cannot even take leave of him before I set out. But there is 
nothing left for me, except to submit to my fate. I beg that you will 
kindly accept the assurance of my affection for you." 

From the above letter it would appear that the duchess regarded her 
father's passion for Madame du Barry with complacence, and was on 
very friendly terms with the latter. 

2 Mortemart, without doubt. 

338 



MADAME DU BARRY 

Orleans. Let me tell you that such token of attachment 
for one who is dear to me gives you an eternal claim on 
my gratitude. Accept, I beg of you, the assurance of the 
affection which I have for you for life. 

" Allow me to curtail the usual compliments at the end 
of letters, and give me the same mark of friendship. I 
send this letter through a reliable person at Paris, who, 
I trust, will be able to forward it to you without incon- 
venience. Pardon my scribble." 1 

"Whether Madame du Barry went to Orleans, as the 
duchess's informant stated, is doubtful. According to one 
writer, she not only did so, but took with her a consider- 
able sum of money, in the hope of bribing Brissac's 
gaolers to connive at his escape. But it seems very 
difficult to believe that the duke, who, as we have seen, 
had made no attempt to escape on the night when his 
arrest was decreed by the Legislative Assembly, when he 
could have done so with the certainty of success, would 
have consented to a plan which must have presented many 
obstacles, and which, in case of failure, must have gravely 
compromised his mistress ; while, on the other hand, the 
ex-favourite's presence in Orleans, by awakening memories 
of the scandalous past, would have undoubtedly injured 
the prisoner. 

Brissac was incarcerated in an old convent in the Rue 
Illiers. He was examined on June 15, but hardly 
attempted to justify himself. When charged with admit- 
ting royalists into the Garde constitutionelle, he merely 
denied it : "I have admitted into the King's Guard no 
one but citizens who fulfilled all the conditions contained 
in the decree of formation." 

1 Cited in Vatel's Histoire de Madame du Barry, iii. 163. 
339 



MADAME DU BARRY 

He was taken back to prison, but does not seem to 
have been kept in very close custody, and was permitted 
to communicate with his friends ; for on June 20 Madame 
de Mortemart informs Madame du Barry that she had 
had a letter from her father. 

The Duchesse de Mortemart to Madame du Barry. 

" "June 20. 

" A million thanks, Madame, for the news which you 
have so kindly sent me. Your letter has been delayed, 
and I only received it together with one from my father, 
which has afforded me great pleasure. Since then I have 
heard that he has been examined, and is no longer in close 
confinement. He is now as comfortable as a prisoner can 
be. Although he is known to be innocent, I fear that the 
proceedings will last a long while. I should have rejoiced 
had I been able to have been of any use to him or given 
him any pleasure in his confinement. Adieu, Madame. 
Pardon my scribble. Be assured of my love for life." 1 

But neither daughter nor mistress were ever to behold 
the prisoner at Orleans again. The ill-advised manifesto 
of the Duke of Brunswick, the declaration that the 
country was in danger, the arrival in Paris of the 
Marseillais and thousands of enthusiastic volunteers on 
their way to the frontier, roused the excited populace to 
madness ; and a few weeks after Madame de Mortemart's 
letter was written, the storm which had so long been 
gathering burst in all its fury. 

After the storming of the Tuileries and the massacres 

which followed, Brissac and his fellow prisoners could no 

longer disguise from themselves the terrible danger which 

1 Cited in Vatel's Histoire de Madame du 'Barry, iii. 167. 

34° 



MADAME DU BARRY 

menaced them ; and on the very day on which the news 
of the events of August 10 reached him, the duke asked 
for writing materials, and, with his own hand, drew up his 
will. 

Having appointed the Duchesse de Mortemart his 
residuary legatee and made provision for various relatives 
and dependants, the testator recommended very earnestly 
to his daughter " a lady who was very dear to him, and 
whom the evils of the time might plunge into the 
greatest distress," and then added the following codicil : 

"I give and bequeath to Madame du Barry, of 
Louveciennes, above and beyond what I owe her, a yearly 
income for life of 24,000 livres, free from all conditions ; 
or, again, the use and enjoyment for life of my estate of 
la Rambaudiere and la Graffiniere, in Poitou, and the 
movables belonging to it ; or, yet again, a lump sum of 
300,000 livres payable in cash ; whichever she may prefer. 
When once she has accepted either of the three legacies 
mentioned, the other two will become void. I beg her to 
accept this small token of my gratitude, I being so much 
the more her debtor in that / was the involuntary cause of 
the loss of his diamonds^ and that if ever she succeeds in 
regaining them from England, those which will be lost, 
added to the expenses incurred in the various journeys 
which their recovery has rendered necessary, will amount 
to a total equivalent to the value of this legacy. I 
request my daughter to prevail upon her to accept it. 
My knowledge of her (his daughter's) heart assures me 
that she will punctually disburse whatever sums she may 
be called upon to pay in order to fulfil my will and 
codicil. My wish is that none of the other legacies be 
paid over until this one has been discharged in full. 

34* 



MADAME DU BARRY 

" Written and signed with my own hand at Orleans, 
this August ii, 1792. 

"Louis-Hercule-Timol£on de Cosse-Brissac." 1 

The same day, the duke wrote the following letter to 
Madame du Barry, the only one, unfortunately, of those 
sent from Orleans which has been preserved : 

The Due de Brissac to Madame du Barry. 

"Saturday, August 11, Orleans, 6 p.m. 

" I received this morning the most amiable of letters, 
and one which has gladdened my heart more than any 
which I have received for a long while. I kiss you 
thousands and thousands of times ; yes, you will be my 
last thought. 

" We are in ignorance of all particulars " (of the events 
of August 10); "I groan and shudder. Ah! dear 
heart, would that I could be with you in a wilderness 
rather than in Orleans, which is a very wearisome place 
to be in." 2 

" You will be my last thought" These words must have 
seemed to Madame du Barry a presentiment of approach- 
ing disaster, and an event which occurred a few days after 
she received her lover's letter increased her fears for his 
safety. 

The duke's aide-de-camp, Maussabre, happened to be 

1 Le Roi's Curiosites historiques, p. 287. The legacy of the duke to 
Madame du Barry was almost entirely absorbed by the creditors of the 
lady, and by a lawsuit between the Becus and the Gomards — both of 
which families claimed to be her heirs — which lasted from 18 14 to 1830. 

2 Tribunaux revolutionnaires, dossier de Madame du Barry, Archives 
nationa/es. On this letter is written : " Un mots avant sa mortJ" 

34* 



MADAME DU BARRY 

at the Tuileries when the palace was attacked by the mob 
on the morning of August 10, and had taken part in its 
defence. He was wounded, and, like the Gar des-du- Corps 
three fyears earlier, took refuge at Louveciennes, where 
Madame du Barry concealed him in a room in the pavilion. 
He imagined himself in safety, but his hopes were vain, 
for a band of local Jacobins, eager to emulate the deeds of 
their Paris brethren, came to search the house, and the 
wretched lad — he was but eighteen — was torn from his 
hiding-place and dragged away to Paris, prison, and 
death, 1 

The invasion of her house showed but too plainly that 
the unpopularity of Brissac was gradually enveloping his 
mistress, and that she was regarded as his accomplice ; and 
the Courrier franfais, in its issue of September 2, announced 
the countess's arrest, no doubt with the intention of still 
further inflaming public opinion against her : 

" Madame du Barry has been arrested at Louveciennes, 
and has been brought to Paris. It was ascertained that 
the old heroine of the late Government was constantly 
sending emissaries to Orleans. M. de Brissac's aide-de- 
camp nad been arrested at her house. It was thought — 
and there was good reason for doing so — that these fre- 
quent messages had some other purpose than love, which 
Madame du Barry must now forget. As the mistress 
and confidential friend of the Due de Brissac, she shared 
his wealth and his pleasures ; who knows if she does 
not, at the same time, share his an ti -revolutionary 
ambition ? 

" It will be piquant reading for our descendants when 
they learn that Madame du Barry was arrested almost 
simultaneously with the pulling down of the statue of the 

1 He was murdered during the September massacres : see p. %\$,infra. 

343 



MADAME DU BARRY 

Maid of Orleans. She was arrested during the night of 
the 30^1-31 st, about 2 a.m." 

On the same day on which this article appeared began 
the frightful massacres which deluged the prisons with 
blood ; and while these atrocities still continued, Madame 
du Barry received intelligence that Brissac and the rest of 
the Orleans prisoners were to be transferred to Paris. It 
appeared that several of those confined in the convent in 
the Rue Illiers had contrived to effect their escape, while 
four others, who had been tried by the High Court, had 
been acquitted. The fear that yet more of their destined 
victims might succeed in evading their doom roused the 
indignation of the more sanguinary of the Paris revo- 
lutionists, and petitions from the sections and the clubs 
demanding that the remaining prisoners should be imme- 
diately brought to Paris for trial poured in upon the 
Assembly. 1 The Assembly, dismayed at the scenes of 
bloodshed which were being enacted around it, and well 
aware what would be the result of compliance with such 
a demand, could not bring itself to consent, until its 
hand was forced by a body of volunteers from Marseilles, 
who set out for Orleans, with the intention of bringing 
back the prisoners ; whereupon Fournier 2 was despatched 
at the head of 1 800 of the National Guard, with instruc- 
tions to conduct the prisoners not to the capital but to the 
Chateau of Saumur. Fournier, however, misunderstood, 

1 At the same time, a pamphlet, entitled Tetes h prix, was being 
circulated in Paris, the writer of which offered 12,000 livres — he did 
not say by whom the money was to be paid — to the man who should 
" make a little Saint-Denis of M. Timoleon Coss£-Brissac." 

2 Surnamed P Americain, as he had spent some years of his life in 
San Domingo. He was one of the most violent of Jacobins, and had 
taken a prominent part in the attack on the Bastille, the affair in the 
Champ de Mars, and the events of August 10. 

344 



MADAME DU BARRY 

or, more probably deliberately disobeyed, his orders, and, 
when Brissac and his companions had been handed over 
to him, took the road to Paris. 

Madame du Barry learned of the duke's removal from 
Orleans from a letter which is supposed to have been 
written by the Chevalier d'Escourre, the tone of which 
was far from calculated to reassure her : 

The Chevalier d'Escourre (?) to Madame du 
Barry. 

" Paris, September 6. 

u The Orleans prisoners are to arrive to-morrow at 
Versailles. It is to be hoped that they will arrive safe 
and sound, and that, by gaining time, their lives will be 
saved. Besides, the Assembly is tired of so much blood- 
shed and proposes to grant an amnesty. The sacrifice is 
not a very great one, seeing that none of them are guilty. 

" I have been to see the editor of the Courrier frangais, 
who will to-morrow retract the false article about you. I 
promised him a reward, if the article was satisfactory. 

" I have received from Orleans ten letters for the 
deputies, imploring them to avert the terrible fate which 
awaits the prisoners. At Orleans, it is believed that as 
soon as they arrive, they will be murdered. 

" I had the letters delivered at once. Madame de 
Maurepas, when she heard of the duke's transfer, wished 
to go at once to the Assembly, but was dissuaded from 
doing so. She then wrote to Danton and the Abbe 
Fauchet. Madame de Flammarens and I took the letters, 
and the Abbe Fauchet was much interested in them. 

" Poor Maussabre would have been spared, had he not 
lost his head. He tried to hide in a chimney ; they 
lighted straw to stifle him and force him to come down ; 

345 



MADAME DU BARRY 

he fell, and they shot him without listening to his appeals 
for mercy. 

" I am cast down body and soul ; I shall only be at rest 
when I know the duke is at Versailles. If it is possible 
to get through, I will send some one, if I cannot go myself. 
Do you also send some one, but above all be careful and 
avoid taking any steps which might be made public and 
be injurious to you both." 1 

Brissac and his fellow captives, to the number of fifty- 
three, left Orleans on September 3, in tumbrils supplied 
by a force of artillery stationed in the neighbourhood, 
escorted by the National Guards and the Marseillais. The 
authorities saw them depart with considerable misgivings^ 
though Fournier swore that he would sacrifice "even his 
life " in their defence, and the force under his command 
was certainly strong enough to overawe any number of 
fanatical sans-culottes. On the 6th they reached Etampes, 
half-way between Orleans and Paris, and halted there till 
the following day; the prisoners taking advantage of the 
delay to write letters to their friends, which they handed 
to Fournier for transmission, and which that worthy subse- 
quently sent to the Convention. 

The terrible scenes which were taking place in Paris had 
thrown the whole of the surrounding country into a fer- 
ment of excitement, and as the cortege neared Versailles, 
the cries of " A has les seigneurs ! a bas les seigneurs I " grew 
more frequent and more threatening, Brissac being in 
particular the object of hostile demonstrations. 

The general council of the Commune of Versailles, fear- 
ing that an attack would be made upon the prisoners, had 
sent orders that they should not be conducted through 

1 Cited in Vatel's Histoire de Madame du Barry , iii. 177. 
346 



MADAME DU BARRY 

the more populous part of the town, and should be con- 
fined for the night in the cages of the Menagerie, " which 
would have the advantage of satisfying the popular resent- 
ment and lessening the sentiment of hatred, by giving rise 
to feelings of contempt." 1 This precaution, however, was 
quite useless ; the rabble of Versailles was determined to 
follow in the footsteps of the murderers of the Faubourg 
Saint-Antoine, and was not to be baulked of its prey. 

On Sunday, the 9th, about one o'clock in the afternoon, 
the cortege entered the town by the Petit-Montreuil Gate, 
passed along the Rue de la Surintendance (now the Rue 
de la Bibliotheque) and the Place d' Armes, and began to 
descend the Rue de l'Orangerie. Up to that moment, 
the people who lined the way had contented themselves 
with shouting "Five la Nation /" and hooting the prisoners ; 
but opposite the Ministry of War the procession was 
stopped by a raging mob armed with pikes, sabres, and 
other weapons. The Mayor of Versailles endeavoured to 
pacify them, but to no purpose, although the leaders 
announced that if Brissac and Lessart, the former Minister 
for Foreign Affairs, were given up, the others would be 
spared. Meanwhile, the Orangery Gate, for which the 
tumbrils were making, had been shut, and the escape of 
the prisoners cut off. 

As to remain stationary was to court certain disaster, 
orders were given to turn back and ascend the street. 
The mob allowed the procession to get as far as the corner 
of the Rue Satory, and then, sweeping the escort, which 
made not the slightest attempt at resistance, 2 aside, cut 

1 Vatel's Histoire de Madame du Barry, iii. 175. 

2 Foumier afterwards declared that he was himself attacked and 
dragged from his horse, and would have been killed, had it not been for 
the intervention of his men. But there can be no possible doubt that 
he was in collusion with the assassins. 

347 



MADAME DU BARRY 

the traces of the horses, and fell savagely upon the hapless 
prisoners. 1 

Snatching a knife from one of his assailants, Brissac 
defended himself bravely, but he was soon overpowered 
by numbers, dragged from his tumbril, and despatched. 
His body was horribly mutilated, and his head, having 
been cut off, was fixed upon a pike, with a label bearing 
his name on the forehead, and carried through the streets 
in triumph. Later in the day, it was taken to Louve- 
ciennes and thrown into the garden, or, according to one 
account, into the salon of Madame du Barry. 2 

The grief and horror which the terrible death of her 
lover occasioned Madame du Barry may be judged from 
the following letter which the countess wrote, a few days 
after the tragic event, to Madame de Mortemart : 

Madame du Barry to the Duchesse de Mortemart. 

" No one has felt more than myself, Madame, the extent 
of the loss which you have just sustained, and I trust that 
you will not be under a misapprehension as to the motive 
which has prevented me from paying you the sad compli- 
ment of mingling my tears with yours before this. The 
fear of augmenting your justifiable grief prevents me from 
speaking to you of it. Mine is complete ; a life which 
ought to have been so great, so glorious ! What an end ! 
Grand Dieu ! 

The last wish of your unhappy father, Madame, was 

1 Statements of Antoine and Pierre Baudin made before a notary in 
Paris, September 12, 1792, cited by Vatel. 

2 " We are assured that the head of M. de Brissac was taken to 
Louveciennes and left in the salon of Madame du Barry." — Courrier 
frangais, September 15, 1792. 

348 



MADAME DU BARRY 

that I should love you as a sister. This wish is too much 
in conformity with my heart for me not to fulfil it. 
Accept the assurance of it, and never doubt the affection 
which attaches me to you for the rest of my life." 

To which the duchess replied : 
The Duchesse de Mortemart to Madame du Barry. 

" September 30. 

" I received your letter this morning. Accept my 
thanks for the good you have done me. You have 
lessened my anguish and brought tears to my eyes. 
Many times I have been ready to write to you and 
speak of my grief; my heart is rent, broken. Ever 
since the fatal day on which my father left Paris I have 
suffered, and I still suffer more than I can express. But 
I judged it wiser to wait until I could contain some of my 
feelings. I must open my heart to you, who alone are 
able to realise my grief. 

" I am eager to fulfil the last wish of him whose memory 
I cherish, and whom I shall mourn for ever ; 1 will indeed 
love you as a sister, and my attachment to you will end 
only with my life. The least of my father's wishes is a 
command sacred to me. If I could only obey every one 
of the desires he had, or must have had, in his last 
moments, I would spare nothing to do so. 

"Pardon my scribble. My head aches so that I cannot 
see. Deign to accept, Madame, the expression of my 
everlasting affection." 1 

1 Tribunaux revolutionnaires, dossier de Madame du Barry, Archive! 
nationales. E. and J. de Goncourt's La Du Barry, p. 230. 



349 



CHAPTER XXIII 

Madame du Barry prepares for a fourth journey to England — ■ 
Her letter to the President of the Convention — Decision of 
the English courts in regard to her jewels — Her meeting with 
the young Due de Choiseul — Her visits to the houses of 
emigris and other indiscretions noted by the spies of the 
Republic — She returns to France — George Greive, agitator, 
at Louveciennes — Reason of his cruel persecution of Madame 
du Barry discussed — He wins over Salanave and the Hindoo, 
Zamor ; and obtains an order for seals to be placed on her 
property — Madame du Barry appeals to the directoire of 
Versailles, and the seals are removed — Petition from certain 
inhabitants of Louveciennes to the Department of Seine-et- 
Oise — Arrest of Madame du Barry suspended by Boileau — 
Greive denounces the ex-favourite at the bar of the Convention 
— Madame du Barry placed under arrest, but liberated on a 
counter-petition from Louveciennes — UEgalite controuvie — 
Zamor dismissed by the countess — Lavallery urges the lady to 
remove to Versailles — Last amour of Madame du Barry. 

Early in the following month Madame du Barry pre- 
pared for a fourth journey to England. On February 6, 
1792, the French courts had duly condemned the authors 
of the robbery at Louveciennes, and declared the jewels 
found in their possession to be the property of the mistress 
of the chateau ; but since then a fresh difficulty had arisen. 
The unfortunate handbill in which Rouen had adver- 
tised the loss of the jewels had been framed in very- 
ambiguous terms. It had offered two thousand louis 
reward, " and a fair and proportionate reward for the 

35° 



MADAME DU BARRY 

objects which might be recovered.'* Madame du Barry 
maintained that the payment of the two thousand louis 
ought to be accepted in full satisfaction of all claims 
against her, and such, without doubt, had been Rouen's 
intention when he drew up the bill. But Simon, the 
London jeweller whose information had led to the appre- 
hension of the thieves, protested that he was entitled not 
only to the above-mentioned sum, but to a commission on 
the value of the property recovered, and brought an action 
to enforce his claim, which necessitated the lady's return 
to England. 

Aware that she was now an object of suspicion and 
dislike to the more violent partisans of the Revolution, 
Madame du Barry, ere leaving France, took every possible 
precaution to guard against the risk of being denounced 
as an imigrie during her absence. She applied to Lebrun, 
the Minister of Foreign Affairs, for a passport ; and when 
he advised her to procure one from the municipality of 
Louveciennes, was careful to have it vise both by the 
directoire of Versailles and the administration of her de- 
partment (Seine-et-Oise). Not content with this, she 
gave a formal undertaking to the municipal authorities 
that she would return to France as soon as her lawsuit 
should be concluded, and wrote to Thuriot, the President 
of the Convention, to the same effect : 

Madame du Barry to the President of the 
Convention. 

"Monsieur le President, — A robbery which deprived 
me, twenty-one months since, of the most valuable portion 
of my property and the only security that my creditors 
possess, necessitated a lawsuit in England, on account of 

35i 



MADAME DU BARRY 

which I have already been obliged to make two 1 very 
expensive journeys. I am advised that the suit will be 
definitely decided this month, and that it is absolutely 
necessary for me to go to London, on pain of being con- 
demned in default and losing the considerable expenses 
to which I have already been put. I have the honour to 
assure you, Monsieur le President, that I have not the least 
intention of deserting my country, where I am leaving all 
the remainder of my property, but that, on the contrary, 
I am entering into a most solemn engagement to return to 
my residence of Louveciennes as soon as my suit is decided. 
I am placing an undertaking to that effect in the hands of 
my municipality, from which I am well assured that I 
have nothing but favourable testimony to expect. 

" I am, with respect . . ."' 2 

Thus protected at all points, as she fondly imagined, 
Madame du Barry set out for England on October 14, 
accompanied by a M. Labondie, a nephew of the Chevalier 
d'Escourre. Her case, however, so far from being con- 
cluded in a few weeks, dragged on for more than four 
months, and it was not until February 27 that the court 
gave a verdict in Simon's favour for one thousand louis, 
and decided that the jewels were to be handed over to the 
countess on her paying that sum and the costs of the pro- 
ceedings. What these amounted to we are not told, but 
they would appear to have been very considerable, as, when 
Madame du Barry was arrested in the following September, 
the jewels were still lying in Ransom's Bank, waiting for 
their owner to redeem them. 

1 She had, of course, made three journeys. 

2 Dossier de Madame du Barry, Archives nationales. E. and J. de 
Goncourt's La Du Bam, p. 248. 

352 



MADAME DU BARRY 

Owing, no doubt, to her grief at the tragic death of 
poor Brissac, Madame du Barry seems to have gone 
but little into English society during this visit, and we 
find no mention of her movements in Walpole's letters. 
She dined, however, on one occasion at the house of 
Thellusson, the banker, and there met the young Due de 
Choiseul, her old enemy's nephew and successor. " I was 
placed next to her at table," says the duke, " and during 
dinner, at which she endeavoured to be very amiable, she 
spoke to me much about my uncle, deplored the counsels 
which she had followed, and gave me to understand that 
she had had for him a coquetterie rfole, but that she had 
found him cold and reserved." 1 

The news of the execution of Louis XVI. on January 
21, 1793, created a profound impression in England. 
Court mourning was ordered and worn by persons of all 
ranks in the metropolis, and Requiem Masses were said in 
all the Catholic churches. Madame du Barry not only 
wore mourning, but attended the service in the chapel of 
the Spanish Embassy ; indiscretions which, together with 
several visits which she paid to the houses of the Comte 
de Narbonne, Calonne, Talleyrand, and other emigrh y were 
duly noted by the spies of the Republic with whom 
London swarmed, and were not forgotten when the poor 
woman appeared before the Revolutionary Tribunal. 

The countess left for France on March i, 2 but as war 

1 Revue de Paris, 1829, vol. iv. p. 48. 

2 Very much against the advice of her friends, who implored her to 
remain. According to Madame Guenard, shortly before her departure 
Madame du Barry had an interview with Pitt, who presented her with 
a medal bearing his portrait, and warned her that if she returned to 
France, she would meet the fate of Regulus. This story is probably 
apocryphal ; but Madame du Barry does seem to have been acquainted 
with Pitt, and also possessed a medal of the kind described ; for " living 

353 2 



MADAME DU BARRY 

had broken out between England and France a month 
previously, she was compelled to remain some time at 
Calais before she could procure a passport. 1 At length, 
on the 17 th, she was permitted to set out for Louve- 
ciennes, where a most unpleasant surprise awaited her. 

Soon after Madame du Barry quitted Louveciennes on 
her last journey to England, a person named George 
Grieve, or Greive, as he wrote his name in later years, 
came to the village and took up his quarters at the inn. 
This Grieve was an Englishman, a member of a respect- 
able family at Alnwick, in Northumberland. His father, 
Richard Grieve, was an attorney, and his brother, 

habitually with Pitt and wearing a medal bearing the effigy of the 
monster " was one of the charges against her at her trial. 
1 Here is the passport : 

Republique Francaise 

Au nom de la loi 

Departement du Pas-de-Calais, district et municipality de Calais 

No. 4829 

Laissez passer la citoyenne Devaubergnier Dubarri, Francaise, domicile 

a Louveciennes, municipality de Louveciennes, district de Versailles, 

departement de Seine-et-Oise 

Agee de quarante ans (!) 
Taille de cinq pieds un pouce 
Cheveux blond (sic) 
Sourcils chatain 
Yeux bleux (sic) 
Nez bien fait 
Bouche moyenne 
Menton rond 
Visage ovale et plein 
Et prltez-lui aide et assistance, &c. 

Delivre en la maison commune de Calais, le 17 mars 1793 L'An II. 
de la Republique et ont signes (sic) Reisenthal, officier municipal ; 
Tellier ; Roullier secretaire commis greffier, qui a sign6 pour le present 
et Devaubergnier Dubarri.-— Vatel's Histoire de Madame du Barry, iii. 189, 

354 



MADAME DU BARRY 

Richardson David Grieve, had been high-sheriff of 
Northumberland in 1788. The Grieves, however, had 
always been ardent politicians, and of a particularly 
turbulent kind. Both the grandfather, Ralph Grieve, and 
Richard Grieve had been expelled from the Common 
Council at Alnwick for riotous conduct during elections, 
and George seems to have inherited the family weakness 
in a very marked degree. In 1774, he took an active part 
in defeating the Duke of Northumberland's attempt to 
nominate both members for the county, and, four years 
later, headed a mob which levelled the fences of a part of 
the moor wrongly presented by the corporation to the 
duke's agent. About 1780, having got into pecuniary 
difficulties, Grieve left England and went to America, 
where he became acquainted with Washington and other 
founders of the Republic, and appears to have supported 
himself by his pen. From America he proceeded to 
Holland, it is said, on some political mission, and about 
1783 took up his abode in Paris. 1 

Until the arrival of Grieve in their midst, the inhabi- 
tants of Louveciennes had been, comparatively speaking, 
unaffected by the disturbances which were going on 
around them ; but Grieve, who had acquired a thorough 
mastery of the French language, and seems to have been a 
fluent and persuasive speaker, soon succeeded in working 
a complete transformation in that peaceful spot ; and by 
the time Madame du Barry returned it would have been 
difficult to find a nest of more rabid Jacobins in all France. 

But it was against the mistress of the chateau herself 
that the agitator's machinations were mainly directed, 
though what motive he could have had for the implacable 

1 Mr. J. G. Alger's " Englishmen in the French Revolution/' p. 187, 
et se<i. 

355 



MADAME DU BARRY 

hatred he evinced towards her has never been satis- 
factorily explained, and must, we fear, always remain 
a matter for conjecture. Some writers think that he was 
prompted by Marat, with whom he was on intimate 
terms, and who, as we have seen, had already attacked 
Madame du Barry in his journal ; others, that he 
intended to terrify her into purchasing his silence ; while 
others, again, incline to the belief that he was enamoured 
of the lady and persecuted her either out of revenge for 
her having rejected his addresses or in the hope of com- 
pelling her to accept them. The most probable solution 
of the mystery, however, is that he was merely a fanatic 
possessed with a mania for delation 1 — he subsequently 
boasted of having brought no less than seventeen persons 
to the guillotine — and imagined that the ruin of so 
prominent a representative of the old regime as the former 
mistress of Louis XV. would add lustre to his sanguinary 
reputation. 

However that may be, Grieve appears to have left no 
stone unturned to compass the destruction of the unhappy 
lady. By bribes or threats, he won over two of her 
servants, Salanave and the Hindoo, Zamor ; wormed all 
their mistress's secrets out of them ; organised a club, 
which had the impudence to meet in her salon and pass 
resolutions against her ; contrived to persuade the 
authorities at Versailles that the countess's prolonged 
absence meant that she had become an imigrk ; and, 
finally, on February 1 6, obtained an order for seals to be 
placed on her property. 

When Madame du Barry returned and found what 
had been done, she was highly indignant and addressed a 

1 He denounced one unfortunate person merely because he had 
observed him " look furious " when visiting Marat. 

356" 



MADAME DU BARRY 

vigorous remonstrance to the administrators of her 
district : 

Madame du Barry to the Directory of the 
District of Versailles. 

" Citizen Administrators, — The Citoyenne de Vau- 
bernier du Barry is very astonished that after all the 
reasons for her being compelled to visit England with 
which she has furnished you, you have treated her 
as an emigrie. Before her departure, she communicated 
to you the declaration that she had made to her 
municipality ; you have registered it at your offices, 
and you are aware that this is the fourth journey 
that she has been obliged to undertake, always for the 
same object. She hopes that you will be willing to 
remove the seals which have been imposed at her house, 
against all justice, since the law has never prohibited 
those persons whom private and urgent affairs call to 
foreign countries leaving the realm. All France is aware 
of the robbery which took place on the night of January 
io-ii ; that the robbers were apprehended in London, 
and that a trial followed, in which the final decision was 
not arrived at until February 28 last, as the enclosed 
certificate bears witness. 1 
" Louveciennes, March 27, 1793." 

This remonstrance had the desired effect, and the seals 
were promptly removed ; but Grieve was not discouraged, 
and, after spending some three months in maturing his 
plans, in company with Salanave 2 and a spy named Blache, 

1 Cited by the Goncourts, La Du Barry, p. 251. 

2 Salanave had been detected by Madame du Barry, soon after her 
return, stealing her porcelain, and had been dismissed. 

357 



MADAME DU BARRY 

who had had Madame du Barry under observation during 
her stay in England, where he had been masquerading as 
a teacher of French, returned to the attack. Profiting by 
the terrible decree of June 2, 1793, which directed the 
authorities throughout the Republic to seize and place 
under arrest all persons " notoirement suspectes d y aristocratie 
et d'incivisme" he drew up an address to the authorities of 
the Department of Seine-et-Oise, signed by thirty-six 
of the inhabitants of Louveciennes, complaining of the 
presence in their midst of many aristocrats and suspected 
persons of both sexes, and demanding the publication of 
the decree of June 2. This request having been granted, 
Grieve at once made out a list of " suspects," placed the 
name of Madame du Barry at the head of it, and pro- 
ceeded to the chateau to arrest her. However, the 
countess had been advised of his proceedings, and had sent 
her valet'de-chambre, Morin, and Labondie, to plead her 
cause with the members of the superior administrations; and 
just as Grieve and the officials of the municipality reached 
the house, Boileau, member for the district, arrived on the 
scene, reprimanded them for making improper use of a 
law which was only intended to be used with great caution, 
and suspended the arrest. 

Nothing daunted, Grieve lost no time in drawing up 
another address, and, on July 3, presented himself at the 
bar of the Convention, accompanied by some of " the 
brave sans-culottes of Louveciennes " ; and there proceeded 
to read his petition, which contained a vehement denunci- 
ation of Madame du Barry, " who had made her chateau 
the centre of liberticide projects, commenced by Brissac 
and continued by the aristocrats of every shade with whom 
she was in constant correspondence ; who insulted by her 
luxury the sufferings of the unfortunate people whose 

358 



MADAME DU BARRY 

husbands, fathers, brothers, and children were shedding 
their blood for the cause of equality in our armies, and 
whose arrest was indispensable in order to destroy the 
vestiges of a false grandeur, which dazzled the eyes of the 
good and simple inhabitants of the surrounding country, 
and put into practice the misunderstood principles of 
equality." 1 

To this the President of the Convention replied : 

" The National Convention applauds the new proofs 
which the commune of Louveciennes has just given of its 
patriotism, recognised from the commencement of the 
Revolution, and which it manifests at the present moment 
by putting into execution the law of June 2 against a woman 
too long celebrated for the misfortune of France. The 
facts that you have just alleged against her are very grave ; 
be assured that, if they are proved, her head shall fall on 
the scaffold. 2 

He then gave orders that Madame du Barry was to be 
placed under arrest in her own house, guarded by a 
gendarme, to be kept there at the lady's expense, and sent 
the petition to the Committee of General Security, 3 which 
body ordered the Department of Seine-et-Oise to hold an 
inquiry into the alleged " incivism " of the Citoyenne du 
Barry. 

The inquiry was held a few days later, and the 

i VEgalit'e controuvee, ou Petite Histoire de la Protection, contenant let 
pieces relatives a la arrestation de la du Barry. (Paris : 1793.) 

2 Ibid. 

3 The Committee of General Security must not be confounded with 
the Committee of Public Safety. On special occasions they consulted 
together, but the former always occupied a subordinate position. The 
Committee of General Security superintended the measures taken for 
the detection of political crime. Originally the Girondists possessed a 
majority in it, but it was now composed of twelve Montagnards. 

359 



MADAME DU BARRY 

signatories of Grieve's petition were called upon to make 
good their allegations. This they entirely failed to do ; 
some, whom Grieve had probably intimidated into signing 
the address, declared that they had done so under a mis- 
apprehension as to its contents, while the rest could only 
adduce rambling statements and vague rumours, which 
even a revolutionary court was reluctant \o admit as evi- 
dence. On the other hand, a number o r the inhabitants 
of Louveciennes who looked with disapproval on Grieve's 
proceedings, and had declined to join the club which he 
had organised, drew up a counter-petition, in which they 
spoke in high terms of the Citoyenne du Barry, declaring 
that she was the benefactress of the village ; that they had 
seen her in all weathers taking food and money to the sick 
and poor ; that she readily paid all taxes that were levied, 
and had proved her patriotism by lending a room in her 
house for a meeting of the local committee. The address 
concluded with a complaint of the conduct of certain 
persons (Grieve and his friends) who had recently estab- 
lished themselves in their midst and set themselves to 
disturb the harmony and good-feeling which had hitherto 
existed. 

This petition they sent to the Committee of General 
Security, who, after having deliberated upon it, decided 
that there was no evidence to convict the Citoyenne du 
Barry, and directed the authorities of Seine-et-Oise to set 
her at liberty. 

Thus the countess was saved a second time, and a 
severe rebuff administered to the malignant Grieve ; but 
the latter was not the man to allow his victim to escape 
him. On July 31 he published and circulated a violent 
pamphlet, under the title of " Sham Equality (JOEgaliti 
controuvee) ; or Short Account of the Protection (i.e., 

360 



MADAME DU BARRY 

that given by Boileau and the authorities of Seine-et-Oise 
to the ex-favourite), containing the documents relating to 
the arrest of the Du Barry, former mistress of Louis XV., 
to serve as an example to those over-zealous patriots who 
wish to save the Republic and those moderates who 
understand marvellously well how to ruin it." The 
author signed himself " Grieve, defenseur officieux of the 
brave sans-culottes of Louveciennes, friend of Franklin 
and Marat, factious (factieux) and anarchist of the first 
water, and disorganiser of despotism for twenty years 
in both hemispheres," denounced the interference of 
departments and committees with the course of justice, 
and called loudly for the death of c * the courtesan of 
Louveciennes, the Bacchante crowned with ivy and 
roses. l 

This pamphlet was, in due course, brought to the notice 
of Madame du Barry, who was astonished to find that it 
contained a number of intimate details regarding her 
private life, which could only have been furnished the 
writer by a member of her household. Her suspicions fell 
upon Zamor, who had been the only one of her servants 
who had not been placed under arrest after Grieve's 
petition to the Convention, and she promptly ordered the 
treacherous and ungrateful Hindoo to leave the house. 
She doubtless imagined that she had got rid of him for 
good and all ; but she was mistaken ; for Zamor was to 
reappear to give evidence against his benefactress before 
the Revolutionary Tribunal. 

As the days went by the attitude of Grieve and his con- 
federates towards the mistress of the chateau became 
more and more menacing, and at length Madame du 

1 A copy of this pamphlet, now very rare, is in the possession of the 
British Museum. 

361 



MADAME DU BARRY 

Barry was forced to appeal for protection to the adminis- 
tration of the department. 

The administrators of Seine-et-Oise were favourably 
disposed towards the ex-favourite ; indeed, one of their 
number, named Lavallery, is commonly believed to have 
been in love with her ; and, in answer to her appeal, 
Lavallery came to Louveciennes and urged her to remove 
to Versailles and place herself under the protection of 
himself and his colleagues. Madame du Barry, however, 
explained to him that all her jewellery which the burglars 
had overlooked, her plate, and a very large sum in cash 
were concealed in various parts of the house and grounds ; 
that the traitors Salanave and Zamor were acquainted 
with her arrangements, and that her departure would 
probably be the signal for a raid, which might deprive her 
of a great part of her fortune. 

The visit of Lavallery to Louveciennes did not pass 
unnoticed by the watchful Grieve, who, the very next 
day, called a meeting of his club and decided to send a 
deputation to Versailles, to denounce Madame du Barry 
to the revolutionary committee of the commune of the 
town, and to draw up, in concert with that body, a 
petition to the Committee of General Security, demanding 
the arrest of her protector and two of his colleagues. 1 

Solicitude for the safety of her hidden treasures was 
not the only reason which made Madame du Barry 
reluctant to quit Louveciennes at that moment ; from the 
following letter, which was among the papers seized at 
at her house, at the time of her arrest, it would appear 
that she had given, or was about to give, a third successor 
to Louis XV. : 



i E. and J. de Goncourt's La Du Barry, p. 261. 
362 



MADAME DU BARRY 

"Saturday, September 7, 1793. 

<c I send you, my dear and affectionate friend, the 
picture that you wished for, sad and funereal present, 1 but 
I feel as much as you yourself that you ought to desire 
it. In such a situation as ours, with so many subjects of 
pain and grief, it is food for our melancholy that we seek 
and which becomes us beyond everything. 

" I have sent to fetch the three portraits of you which 
were at his house ; they are here. I have kept one of 
the small ones ; it is the original of that in which you are 
wearing a chemise or white peignoir and a hat with a 
plume. 2 The second is a copy of that in which the head 
is finished, but where the attire is only traced out 3 ; 
neither of them are framed. The large one, by Madame 
Lebrun, is delicious and a ravishing likeness : it is a 
speaking portrait and infinitely pleasing ; but indeed I 
should have thought myself too indiscreet in selecting it, 
and the one I am keeping is so pleasing, so excellent a 
likeness, and so piquant, that I am extremely content with 
it and transported with happiness at possessing it. The 
one begun by Letellier is only sketched out, and the head 
is scarcely anything but a rough draft, which may become 
a good likeness. I have had it sent back to the painter. 

" With regard to your large portrait and the one 
which I am keeping, tell me, dear friend, if you wish me 
to send them to you or if I ought to have them taken 
back to where they came from ; in short, what destination 
you intend for them. I desire nothing more than to 
have one which I may carry with me and which may 
never leave me. Come then, dear love, to pass sweet 
days here ; come and dine with me, with whomever you 

1 Without doubt a portrait of Brissac. 

2 See p. 320 note supra. 3 Ibid. 

3<>3 



MADAME DU BARRY 

may choose ; come and procure me a few moments of 
happiness ; I have none save with you ; let me have an 
answer to all my questions ; come to see a mortal who 
loves you beyond all and above all until the last moment 
of his life. I kiss a thousand times the portrait of the 
most charming woman in the world, and whose heart, so 
good and so noble, merits an eternal devotion." 

This letter, now in the National Archives, is unsigned, 
and there is considerable doubt as to the identity of its 
writer. M. Vatel is of opinion that it was penned by the 
Due de Rohan-Chabot, a young man some twenty years 
Madame du Barry's junior, to whom the ex-favourite had, 
a few months previously, advanced a large sum of money, 
an act which, as we shall presently see, both she and her 
unfortunate bankers, the Vandenyvers, who had nego- 
tiated the transaction, were to have good cause to rue. 
But the nobleman in question was certainly not in a 
position to invite the lady to dine with him just then, or 
even to spend " a few moments of happiness " with her, 
as he appears to have taken up arms against the Republic, 
and had he ventured within a dozen leagues of Paris, would 
most certainly have paid for his rashness with his head. 
We are, therefore, inclined to think that the Goncourts, 
who attribute the letter to another member of the Rohan 
family, the Prince de Rohan- Rochefort, may be nearer the 
mark, as the princess of that name was an intimate friend 
of Madame du Barry. However, as they do not give us 
any reason for the conclusion at which they have arrived, 
it is probably merely a supposition on their part. 



364 



CHAPTER XXIV 

Petition to the Committee of General Security against 
Madame du Barry — Warrant for her arrest issued — Grieve 
arrests the ex-favourite and the Chevalier d'Escourre — 
Madame du Barry at Sainte-P61agie — She appeals to the 
Administration of Seine-et-Oise — Suicide of her protector, 
Lavallery — Denunciation! and arrest of the Vandenyvers, the 
bankers of Madame du Barry — Annotations made by Grieve 
on the papers seized at Louveciennes — Interrogatory of 
Madame du Barry — And of the elder Vandenyver — The 
countess is committed for trial — She is interrogated by 
Dumas, vice-president of the Revolutionary Court — Her 
letter to Fouquier-Tinville, the Public Prosecutor — She is 
transferred to the Conciergerie. 

In the second week in September 1793, several members 
of the Committee of General Security retired, and were 
replaced by some of the most fanatical and sanguinary 
members of the " Mountain " : Vadier, " that odious 
mixture of pride, barbarity, and cowardice,'* as Louis Blanc 
designates him ; Amar, who had voted for the execution 
of Louis XVI. " sans appelni sursis " ; and Panis, Santerre's 
brother-in-law. The implacable Grieve was not slow to 
perceive his opportunity, and hardly had the new members 
taken their seats when he presented himself before them 
with a new petition against Madame du Barry, signed 
by the revolutionary committee of the commune of 
Versailles. 

On this occasion, his efforts were crowned with success, 

365 



MADAME DU BARRY 

and, on September 21, the Committee of General Security 
issued the following decree : 

"WARRANT FOR ARREST. 

" Committee of General Security, 

"Sitting September 21, 1793. 

ct The Committee decrees that the woman named 
Dubarry, residing at Louveciennes, shall be arrested and 
conducted to the prison of Sainte-Pelagie, to be there 
detained, as a measure of general security, as a person 
suspected of incivism and aristocracy. The seals shall be 
placed on her effects, and perquisition made of her papers. 
Those which appear suspicious shall be brought to the 
Committee of General Security. The Committee dele- 
gates the Citizen Grieve to execute the present decree, 
and authorises him to requisition such civil officers 
of justice as he may find ; armed force if need be. 
Moreover, the Citizen Grieve will cause to be arrested and 
conducted to Paris, to be confined as a measure of general 
security in the prison of La Force, all persons found at 
the house of the said Dubarry at Louveciennes at the 
moment of the execution of the present decree. 

"Signed: Boucher-Saint-Sauveur, 
" Amar, Vadier, Panis." 1 

The following day, accompanied by the mayor — who, 
poor man ! must have been shaking in his shoes, as he was 
one of those who had signed the pro-Du Barry petition 
of the previous summer — the juge de paix of Marly, 
several officers of the municipality, and two gendarmes, 
Grieve proceeded to Louveciennes, exhibited his warrant 
to the ill-fated mistress of the chateau, directed the juge 
ae paix to place the seals on the doors of the house, 

1 Cited in Vatel's Histoire de Madame du Barry, iii. 451. 
366 



MADAME DU BARRY 

ordered the lady to enter a carriage in company with the 
gendarmes, and set out for Paris. 

As they were passing the hydraulic machine at Marly, 
they perceived a cabriolet approaching, in which sat the 
Chevalier d'Escourre, who was on his way to pay 
Madame du Barry a visit. Although Grieve had no 
authority to apprehend any one save the ex-favourite and 
those found on her premises, he was not the man to stick 
at trifles, and immediately ordered the gendarmes to 
arrest the chevalier, whom he subsequently declared to 
have been " at the du Barry's door," 1 at the moment 
when her arrest took place. He then removed the lady 
to the cabriolet, took the reins himself, and drove her the 
rest of the way to the city. 

It would indeed be interesting to know what passed 
between the Englishman and the woman whose fate he 
held in his hands during that drive. Did he offer her 
life ? as several writers seem to suppose. If he did, the 
price was one which she declined to pay, for Grieve never 
turned aside for a moment from his fell purpose until the 
guillotine had claimed its victim. 

At Sainte-Pelagie, Madame du Barry found herself in 
the company of many of her own sex : the celebrated 
Madame Roland, who had been shut up there since 
September 2 ; the wives of two other Girondin leaders, 
Mesdames Brissot and Petion ; Mesdames de Crequy- 
Montmorency and de Gouy ; the Mesdemoiselles de 

1 " D'Estcourt had already arrived in a cabriolet, with a servant, at 
the Dubarry's door, the day of her arrest ; but having learned what was 
passing in the house, fled at full speed. Our brave sans-culottes pursued 
him, and, with difficulty, caught him at the foot of the mountain of 
Bougival." — Note in Grieve's handwriting on the back of d'Escourre's 
acte d' accusation, cited by the Goncourts. 

367 



MADAME DU BARRY 

Moncrif and several actresses of the Francois, now the 
Theatre de la Nation, among them Mademoiselle Rau- 
court, to whom, in the days of her favour, the countess 
had presented a magnificent dress. 

Madame du Barry was very far from being disposed 
to follow the example of calm fortitude which the 
Girondin ladies set her, and on October 2 she wrote 
a letter to the Administration of Seine-et-Oise, complain- 
ing of the treatment she had received at the hands of the 
Committee of General Security, who, after declaring her 
innocent of the charges brought against her, had, only a 
few weeks later, decreed her arrest. She pointed out that, 
had she desired, she could easily have removed the most 
valuable part of her property to England during her 
several journeys thither, and that the fact that she had not 
done so was a convincing proof of her attachment to her 
country ; and she begged the Administration to prevent 
Grieve from plundering her house. 

The letter was without effect, for her enemy, anticipat- 
ing her appeal to the departmental authorities, had, a few 
days before obtaining the warrant for the ex-favourite's 
arrest, denounced Lavallery and his two brother-adminis- 
trators to the Committee of General Security, who had 
ordered their apprehension ; and, on the very day on 
which Madame du Barry's letter was written, the body of 
her protector was found floating in the Seine above Paris. 
Some writers have asserted that he was so madly en- 
amoured of Madame du Barry that he drowned himself 
on learning of her arrest ; but it would appear more 
probable that his death was due to a desire to escape the 
ignominy of a public execution, as the warrant for his 
own arrest had been issued before any steps had been 
taken against the lady. However, there can be little 

368 



MADAME DU BARRY 

doubt that his admiration for the mistress of Louveciennes 
cost him his life. 

Finding that she had nothing to hope for from the 
Department, Madame du Barry appealed directly to the 
Committee of General Security, to whom her friends at 
Louveciennes now addressed a second petition, praying for 
the release of their benefactress. This seems to have 
alarmed Grieve, who thereupon went to Heron, a member 
of the Committee, who had a long-standing feud with the 
Vandenyvers, Madame du Barry's bankers, and urged him 
to denounce them to his colleagues as accomplices of the 
ex-favourite in her dealings with aristocrats and emigres, 
by which move, he perceived, the case against the poor 
woman would be greatly strengthened. Heron needed 
very little persuasion to induce him to undertake so con- 
genial a task ; and the unfortunate bankers were arrested 
and removed to Sainte-Pelagie. 

While Heron was drawing up his report against the 
Vandenyvers, Grieve had received permission to make 
investigations at Louveciennes, where he busied himself in 
going through all the letters and papers he could find in 
the chateau and affixing to them annotations for the guid- 
ance of the prosecution. Although the majority of these 
letters are of the most trivial nature, and many anterior to 
the Revolution, there is hardly one from which the malice 
of the scoundrel does not succeed in extracting something 
to compromise his victim. 

Thus, on a note in which mention is made of the Abbe 
Billiardi, he writes : " This Abbe Billiardi was one of her 
most frequent visitors since the Revolution, as was also 
the Abbe de Fontenille, ex-vicar of A gen, guillotined the 
other day in Paris. Billiardi is dead. These abbes were 
inseparable friends, and Billiardi was also an anti-revolu- 

369 2 A 



MADAME DU BARRY 

tionist. 'Behold the friends of the Dubarry I " On a 
letter from Madame Vigee Lebrun, dated from Naples, in 
which she begs to be remembered to Brissac, Madame de 
Souza, the Portuguese Ambassadress, and the Marquise 
de Brunoi : " Letter of the woman Lebrun, painter and 
mistress of Calonne." 

On a letter from Thellusson, the banker : " One of the 
greatest London bankers, nephew of Thellusson, former part- 
ner of Necker and great enemy of the Revolution. 11 

On a letter from Forth, a London detective whom 
Madame du Barry had employed for the recovery of her 
jewels : " Proof of her connection with Forth, the famous 
English spy, who has not ceased to intrigue against France 
since 1777, and particularly since the time of Franklin. It is 
he and Bethune Charost who have been the most active emis- 
saries of the Courts of London, Berlin, and the Hague, ana 
it is this Forth who, one may presume, has plotted with her at 
Louveciennes the pretended robbery of her diamonds 1 '' 

On a letter from Lord Hawkesbury, 1 who presents his 
compliments to Madame du Barry and will be charmed 
to render her any service in his power in regard to her law- 
suit : " Letter which proves her intrigues with the courtiers 
of George III. Lord Hawkesbury is the privy councillor of 
the tyrant, who governs Pitt himself and who, for twenty years, 
has really held the reins of government, although now and again 
apparently in disgrace; his son 2 is to-day the great political 
courier between London and the allied Powers in the Nether- 
lands? 1 

" He forces the letters to say what they do not say, he 
connects certain passages with events with which they 

1 Charles Jenkinson, afterwards first Earl of Liverpool. He had been 
created Baron Hawkesbury in 1786. 

2 Robert Bank e Jenkinson, afterwards second Earl of Liverpool. 

37° 



MADAME DU BARRY 

have no connection. He imagines, he supposes, he lies, 
he tortures, in short, phrases and words to extract from 
them a culpability necessary for the furtherance of his 
schemes and his hatred." 

On a letter from the Due de Rohan-Chabot referring 
to the loan of 200,000 livres which Madame du Barry 
had made him, he suggests that the money was to be 
used to subsidise the insurgents in La Vendee, where the 
duke's estates were. A memorandum of the expenses 
incurred by the countess during her stay in London in 
November 1792 is endorsed with an inquiry if the money 
were not given to emigres. And a letter from an old lady 
to Madame du Barry, dated La Meilleraie, April 9, 1793, 
bears the annotation : " Remark the time when this letter 
was written ; it is that of the treason of Dumouriez." 

He details the " liberticide " books, journals, pam- 
phlets, engravings, and so forth which he has found, among 
which he cites the Histoire des caricatures de la revoke des 
Francais of Boyer de Nismes ; twelve copies of Peltier's 
Dernier Tableau de Paris ; a translation of Burke's work 
on Marie Antoinette ; Epitaphe du Varicourt, tue a la porte 
de la Reine, which he declares to have been written by the 
Abbe Dellile, " poet- in-ordinary of the Dubarry," and a 
portrait of the Comte d'Artois. 1 Assisted by Salanave 
and Zamor, he also collected all the jewellery, cash, and 
securities he could discover, and made an exact inventory 
of them ; after which he drew up a list of twenty-seven 
witnesses, with himself at their head, and forwarded this, 
together with a long memorandum of the various facts to 

1 Tribunaux revolutionn aires, dossier de la nominee "Jeanne Vaubernier du 
Barry . . . et des Vendenyver, prevenus a" intelligences et correspondances 
contre-revolutionnaires avec les emigres : Archives nationales. E. and J, de 
Goncourt's La Du Barry, pp. 273-278. 

371 



MADAME DU BARRY 

which they were prepared to depose, to Fouquier-Tinville, 
the Public Prosecutor. 

On October 30 the Committee of General Security- 
deputed two of their number, Voulland and Jagot, to 
proceed to Sainte-Pelagie and interrogate the Citoyenne 
du Barry. This interrogatory, a verbatim account of 
which will be found in M. Vatel's interesting work, was a 
very lengthy one, but we shall confine ourselves to the 
more important points of the examination. 

Q. From whom did you receive while in London the 
money you required for your expenses and the conduct of 
your lawsuit ? 

A. From the Citizen Vandenyver, banker of Paris, Rue 
Vivienne, who gave me a letter of credit on Thellusson ; 
it was during my last journey that I made use of 
that. 

Q. Is your lawsuit concluded ? 

A. My lawsuit was concluded on February 27, the last 
day of term. 

Q. Was not the time you were to spend in London 
specified in your passport ? 

A. No date was specified, and could not reasonably be, 
as a lawsuit had to be concluded. 

Q. During the time you were in London, decrees were 
issued by the National Convention ordering all French 
who had left the Republic within a certain time to return, 
under pain of being regarded as Emigres and treated as 
such. Were you aware of this ? 

A. I was aware of these decrees, but did not consider 
that they concerned me, as I had left for a definite reason 
and was provided with a passport. 

Q. During your stay in London, war was declared 
between the French Republic and the King of Great 

372 



MADAME DU BARRY 

Britain. Why, under these circumstances, did you not 
quit the enemy's territory ? 

A. War was declared such a short time before my 
departure, 1 and my case was on the point of being decided. 
I therefore prolonged my stay, in order to avoid a fresh 
journey. 

She was then questioned about her loan of 200,000 
livres to the Due de Rohan-Chabot, which she admitted, 
but stoutly denied that she had advanced a similar sum to 
the Bishop of Rouen, and persisted in denying all know- 
ledge of such a transaction, though shown a letter from 
the Vandenyvers referring to a proposed loan to that 
prelate. 2 

The letters seized at Louveciennes and annotated by 
Grieve were next produced, and the prisoner taken 
through them, with a twofold purpose : to make her in- 
criminate herself, and to ascertain particulars about her 
correspondents which might be used against them here- 
after. In the latter object the questioners were but too 
successful, as Madame du Barry admitted that the writer 
of a letter which contained an innocent remark about 
Marie Antoinette was the Princess Lubomirska, a member 
of an old Polish family, who had come to Paris the pre- 
vious year with her little daughter ; and the unhappy lady 
was arrested on a charge of " conspiring to effect the 
escape of the widow Capet," condemned, and executed. 
It also transpired that the detective Forth — Grieve's 

1 Exactly a month. War was declared on February 1, 1793, and 
Madame du Barry left England on March I. 

2 This was an important point, as Cardinal de La Rochefoucauld, 
Bishop of Rouen, was a bitter opponent of the Revolution. He had signed 
the protest of September 21, 1791, against the innovations in religion 
made by the National Assembly, incited his clergy to resistance, and, 
after the events of August 10, had emigrated. 

373 



MADAME DU BARRY 

" famous English spy " — who had been employed by 
Madame du Barry to recover her diamonds, had, before 
the outbreak of war, been in the habit of conveying letters 
from emigres in London to their friends in France, and 
that the lady, in her turn, had been requested by a 
gentleman who had since lost his head to take charge of 
a letter for Madame Calonne, which, however, she declared 
she had not delivered. 

The commissioners then proceeded to interrogate her 
in regard to her relations with emigres while in England. 
She admitted that she had received visits from a few whom 
she had known previously, "as it was difficult for her to 
close her doors to them," and had visited them, but denied 
having given them money, except small sums in two 
instances, and only as loans. Shown a memorandum of 
her expenses during her last visit to London and asked to 
explain, amongst others, payments made to Frondeville, 
ex-President of the Parliament of Rouen, and a person 
named Fortune, she answered that the money had been 
given them " to gamble for her," and had been repaid. 

The jewel robbery at Louveciennes was the next point 
raised. 

Q. Was the list of the diamonds which you had printed 
correct ? Did it not contain a description of other stones 
besides those stolen ? 

A. The description was perfectly correct, with the 
exception of a chain of emeralds and diamonds, which was 
stolen, and which was brought to M. de Brissac during my 
third visit to England. M. de Brissac gave a hundred louis 
to the person who brought it to him. 

Q. Did you ever entertain the idea of selling your 
diamonds, and did you not take steps for that purpose and 
send them abroad ? If so, when ? 

374 



MADAME DU BARRY 

A. In 1789 or 1790. I applied to Vandenyver, who 
sent part of them to Holland ; but the price offered not 
being sufficient, I withdrew the jewels from Vandenyver 
and gave him a receipt cancelling the one he had given me. 

After some further questions she was asked what money 
she had in her house, and replied that she had given 
instructions to her servants to conceal " eleven bags, each 
containing 1200 livres, 1531 louis d'or (which she had 
borrowed from the Due de Brissac to pay the reward for 
her diamonds), 40 double louis, and some English half- 
guineas. She was, however, in ignorance where her people 
had hidden the money. 

The last question put to her was in reference to the 
shelter she had given to the Abbe de la Roche-Fontenille, 
nephew of the Abbess of Pont-aux-Dames. She admitted 
that she had given the abbe a room at Louveciennes, " as 
a return for the kindness which his aunt had shown her," 
but she had not seen him since September 1792, and did 
not know what had become of him. 

At this the inquisitors must have smiled grimly, for the 
poor Abb6 de la Roche-Fontenille had been despatched to 
another world, by way of the Place de la Revolution, three 
days previously. 

Two days later (Brumaire 11), the elder Vandenyver 
was examined, and questioned very closely as to the money 
he had furnished to Madame du Barry while in England, 
and particularly in regard to the supposed loan of 200,000 
livres to the Bishop of Rouen. He admitted paying the 
sum in question, on his client's instructions, to a person 
who had called at the bank for the money, but declared 
that he had never seen the man before, and could not say 
" positively" if it was intended for the bishop. 1 

1 Vatel's Histoire de Madame du Barry, iii. 221, et sea. 
375 



MADAME DU B'ARRY 

On Brumaire 29 (November 19) the Committee or 
General Security issued the following decree : 

" 29 Brumaire Tear II. of the French Republic 
one and indivisible. 

" The Committee of General Security having taken 
cognisance of the various documents found at the house 
of the Du Barry, placed under arrest as a measure of 
general security as a suspected person, by the terms of 
the decree of September 1 7 last, 1 and being of opinion that 
the said documents show that the woman Du Barry has 
been guilty of emigration and of having, during the 
sojourn which she made in London from the month of 
October 1792 to the month of March last, furnished to 
imigris who have sought refuge there pecuniary assistance, 
and carried on with them a suspicious correspondence, 
decrees that the said Du Barry shall be transferred to the 
Revolutionary Court, to be there prosecuted and judged 
by the Public Prosecutor." 2 

Three days later, Madame du Barry was brought from 
Sainte-Pelagie, where she had already spent two weary 
months, to the Palais de Justice, and interrogated by 
Robespierre's henchman, the brutal Dumas, vice-president 
of the Revolutionary Court, in the presence of the Public 
Prosecutor and the clerk to the court. Dumas asked her 
a great many questions about the sums she had squandered 
during her favour, the extent of her influence over Louis 
XV., the gratifications and pensions she had obtained for 
her friends, and so forth. He then declared his belief 

1 Evidently an error. The warrant for her arrest was issued 
September 21. 

2 Dossier du Barry : Archives nation ales. E. and J. de Goncourt's 
La Du Barry, p. 280. 

376 



MADAME DU BARRY 

that the jewel robbery and the lawsuit were only pretexts 
to conceal a political secret, and that she had " conspired 
against the Republic." 1 Madame du Barry contented her- 
self with a simple denial, and was then taken back to 
Sainte-Pelagie, whence she addressed the following letter 
to the Public Prosecutor : 

Madame du Barry to Fouquier-Tinville. 

" Citizen Public Prosecutor, — I hope that thou, in 
the impartial examination of this unhappy affair that Grieve 
and his confederates have brought against me, wilt see that 
I am the victim of a plot to ruin me. 

" I never emigrated, and I never intended to. 

" The use that I made of the two hundred thousand 
livres that d'Escourre placed for me with the Citizen 
Rohan 2 should prove this to the most prejudiced eyes. 

" I never furnished money to the emigres, and I never 
carried on any criminal correspondence with them ; and it 
circumstances compelled me to see, either in London or 
in France, courtiers or persons who were not in sympathy 
with the Revolution, I hope, Citizen Public Prosecutor, 
that thou wilt, in the justice and equity of thine heart, take 
into consideration the circumstances in which I found 
myself, and my known and forced liaison with the Citizen 
Brissac, 3 whose correspondence is before thine eyes. 

" I rely on thy justice : thou canst rely on the eternal 
gratitude of thy consitoyenne (sic)." 4 

1 Vatel's Histeire de Madame du Barry, in. 241/ 

2 The Due de Rohan-Chabot. 

3 It is not clear what Madame du Barry meant by her forced liaison 
with Brissac, and M. Vatel is of opinion that, in her hurry and agitation, 
she must have omitted several words. 

4 Cited in Memoir es de Favrolle,iv. 122. 

377 



MADAME DU BARRY 

The estimable Fouquier was not quite so well known at 
this period as he became in the following spring, when the 
star of Robespierre was in the ascendant and the guillotine 
was mowing down Royalists and Hebertists and Danton- 
ists at the rate of a hundred a week, or poor Madame 
du Barry would have been aware that she had no mercy 
to expect at his hands. He threw her appeal unread into 
a portfolio in which he kept the letters and papers he did 
not wish to attend to, and, harassed as he was by the im- 
portunities of Grieve, hurried on the trial. On Decem- 
ber 4, the ex-favourite was transferred from Sainte-Pelagie 
to the Conciergerie, " the threshold of the scaffold," the 
walls of which were still stained with the blood of the 
victims of the September Massacres, 1 and, at nine o'clock 



1 In his Memoires, Dutens relates the following anecdote, a propos of 
Madame du Barry's imprisonment at the Conciergerie : 

" Shortly before the Comtesse du Barry was guillotined, on December 
8, 1793, an Irish priest found means to visit her at the Conciergerie 
and offered to save her, provided she could give him the amount which 
would be required for bribing the gaolers and paying the expenses 
connected with the journey. She inquired if he could save two 
persons ; but he replied that his plan would only permit him to save 
one. ' In that case,' said Madame du Barry, ' I am willing to give you 
an order on my banker which will enable you to obtain the necessary 
amount ; but I prefer you to save the Duchesse de Mortemart rather 
than myself. She is hidden in a garret of such and such a house in 
Calais ; here is an order on my banker ; fly to her help.' The priest 
entreated her to allow him to rescue her from the prison ; but, on perceiv- 
ing that she was resolved to save the duchess, took the order, obtained 
the money, went to Calais, and brought the duchess out of her hiding- 
place. Then, having disguised her as a common woman, he gave her 
his arm, and travelled with her on foot, saying that he was a good 
constitutional priest and married to this woman. Every one cried 
* Bravo,' and allowed him to pass. He then crossed the French lines at 
Ostend, and embarked for England with Madame de Mortemart, whom 

378 



MADAME DU BARRY 

on the morning of the 6th, she and the three Vandenyvers 
were brought before the Revolutionary Court. 

I have since seen in London." — Memoires d'un poyageur qui se repose, 
Hi. 115. 

M. Forneron, in his Histoire generate des Emigres, and the 
Goncourts, in their La Du Barry, accept this story ; but M 
Vatel, in spite of his strong predilection for Madame du Barry, 
declines to place any faith in it, at least in its original form. 
In the first place, he points out, the lady's banker was, like herself, 
under lock and key, and, in the second, escape from the Conciergerie 
was absolutely impossible. On the other hand, a Madame de 
Mortemart — not the duchess, but her sister-in-law — does appear to have 
been in hiding at Calais at this time, and he therefore thinks that what 
really happened was that the priest in question having, like a gallant 
Irishman, offered to attempt the impossible on behalf of the poor lady, 
she replied : " You cannot save me ; try to save Madame de 
Mortemart." Even in this modified form, however, the anecdote still 
reflects credit on Madame du Barry. 



379 



CHAPTER XXV 

Trial of Madame du Barry and the Vandenyvers before the 
Revolutionary Court — Opening speech of Fouquier-Tinville 
for the prosecution — Evidence of Grieve — Audouin — Blache 
— The Chevalier d'Escourre — Salanave — Zamor — Thenot 
— Fournier — Witnesses for the defence afraid to come for- 
ward — Closing speech of Fouquier-Tinville — Condemnation 
of the accused — Declaration of Madame du Barry in 
regard to her property concealed at Louveciennes — Her 
execution. 

The Revolutionary Court, which had been created in the 
previous March, in spite of the strenuous opposition of 
the Girondins, to judge without appeal conspirators against 
the State, still retained all the forms of justice — it was not 
until June 1794 that the hearing of counsel and calling 
of witnesses were dispensed with — but its proceedings 
were, in the great majority of cases, a hollow farce. The 
judges were appointed from the ranks of the most 
ruthless Terrorists, the jurymen, nominated by the Con- 
vention, were all "gens d y expedition" while, as to give 
evidence on behalf of an accused person was to incur the 
danger of sharing his fate, witnesses for the defence could 
with difficulty be induced to come forward. Appalling 
indeed is the record of the Revolutionary Court. From 
the time of its institution in March 1793 to its reorgani- 
sation on June ic of the following year it condemned to 

380 



MADAME DU BARRY 

death 1259 persons, and after June 18, 1794, in seven 
weeks it sent 1368 persons to the guillotine. 1 

Such was the tribunal before which Madame du Barry 
and the Vandenyvers appeared that dark December morn- 
ing. Dumas occupied the president's seat, assisted in his 
deliberations by three other judges, David, Denisot, and 
Bravet ; the infamous Fouquier, of course, prosecuted ; 
while upon the jury were Topino-Lebrun, the painter, 
Robespierre's satellite, Payan, and Sambat and Trinchard, 
who had been members of the jury which had condemned 
Marie Antoinette. Chauveau-Lagarde, who had defended 
Brissot, Charlotte Corday, and the Queen, represented 
the Vandenyvers ; Lafleuterie, Madame du Barry. 

The Bulletin du Tribunal revolutionnaire contains no 
account of the trial, but we have, in its place, a document 
of incontestable value in the shape of the notes taken 
by Fouquier-Tinville, who wrote with extraordinary 
rapidity, and jotted down all the answers given — he did not 
trouble to transcribe the questions — and has also left us a 
verbatim copy of his own speeches for the prosecution. 

The jury having been sworn, the president turned to 
the accused and demanded their names, ages, professions, 
and places of birth and residence, to which they gave 
the following answers : 

" Jeanne Vaubernier, separated wife of Du Barry, aged 
forty-two years, 2 born at Vaucouleurs, residing at Louve- 
ciennes." 

"Jean Baptiste Vandenyver, aged sixtv-six, banker, 
born at Amsterdam, residing at Paris, Rue Vivienne." 

1 For a full account of this famous— or rather infamous — court, see 
M. Henri Wallon's fine work, Histoire du Tribunal revolutionnaire (Paris : 
1880-1882, 6 volumes). 

2 She was, of course, fifty, having been born August 29, 1743. 

381 



MADAME DU BARRY 

" Edme Jean Bapt : ste Vandenyver, aged twenty-nine, 
banker, born at Paris, residing in the same street." 

" Antoine Auguste Vandenyver, aged thirty-two, 
banker, born at Paris, residing here, also in the Rue 
Vivienne." 

The greffier then read the indictment, and Fouquier rose 
to open the attack. 

After detailing the various steps which had been taken 
against the accused, the seizure of their papers, their in- 
terrogatories, and so forth, and a piquant account of the 
career of Madame du Barry at the Court of Louis XV., 
the prosecutor declared that the examination of the 
documents found at Louveciennes proved that "the 
Aspasia of the French Sardanapalus " had been the instru- 
ment and accomplice of emigres, and the support and 
protector of those aristocrats who had remained in France ; 
and he mentioned the unfortunate Abbe de la Roche- 
Fontenille as having found an asylum with her. He declared 
that, in her desire to render assistance to the emigres, 
she had invented a robbery of diamonds in the night of 
January 10— n, 1791 1 ; that this pretended robbery was 
a pretext concocted with Forth, an English agent, to place 
her in communication with all the ant i- Revolutionary 
agents in London ; that during her four visits to London 
she had lived only with emigres and English aristocrats 
hostile to the Revolution, particularly with " the infamous 
Pitt, that implacable enemy of the human race," and that 
she had brought back with her " a medal bearing the 

1 When Fouquier said this, he lied deliberately, as he had before him 
all the proofs of the robbery, and, in particular, a deposition of the spy 
Blache, admitting that he had seen the stolen jewels at the Lord 
Mayor's Court in London, no doubt when the jeweller Rouen was 
identifying them. This fact, needless to say, was not disclosed at the 
trial. 

382 



MADAME DU BARRY 

effigy of the monster." He declared that her purse was 
at the disposal of all the rebels in France ; that she had 
advanced a sum of 200,000 livres to Rohan-Chabot, 
possessor of large estates in La Vendee, " the present 
centre of rebellion " ; 200,000 livres to La Rochefoucauld, 
former Bishop of Rouen, and large amounts to the 
Chavalier d'Escourre, his nephew, Labondie, and other 
disaffected persons. He declared that it had been her 
intention to make her house into " a little stronghold,*' 
which was proved by the fact that several guns had 
been found upon the premises. He spoke of the treasures 
which she had concealed and of the collection of anti- 
revolutionary pamphlets and engravings discovered at 
Louveciennes ; declared that she had worn mourning 
in London for the late King, and had carried on a con- 
stant correspondence with the most bitter enemies of 
the Republic : Calonne, Brissac, Maussabre, Mortemart, 
Narbonne, and many others. 

Passing to the Vandenyvers, he described them as the 
intermediaries between the Du Barry and the emigres. 
He accused them of having sent the diamonds of the Du 
Barry to Holland ; of having provided her during her 
visits to England with several letters of credit, one for 
£50,000 and another "for an unlimited amount"; of 
having advanced the loans for Rohan-Chabot and La 
Rochefoucauld, and all the money wherewith their client 
had provided the emigres. He declared that they had 
been "at all times the enemies of France," and in 1782 
had been concerned in a vast plot to ruin the credit of the 
country and " perpetuate the slavery of the French," and 
ended by accusing them of being " chevaliers du poigtiard" 
and of having co-operated " in the massacre of the people." 

1 Apparently, the only foundation for this last charge was a state- 

383 



MADAME DU BARRY 

He then proceeded to call his witnesses, beginning with 
Grieve, who deposed that he had found, hidden in various 
parts of the chateau and grounds at Louveciennes, a 
quantity of precious stones, gold and silver, portraits of 
Louis XV. (as a Carmelite friar), Anne of Austria, and 
the Regent d'Orleans, and a medal bearing the likeness of 
Pitt. He added that an English spy, named Forth, made 
frequent journeys between London and Louveciennes, pre- 
vious to the outbreak of war ; that the general opinion in 
the village was that the robbery had never taken place ; 
and that the accused had obtained her passports under false 
pretences, as so far from her jewels being the only security 
of her creditors, as she had stated in her letter to the 
President of the Convention, 1 she was possessed of " im- 
mense treasures, valued at ten to twelve million livres," 
lived in most luxurious style, and kept forty servants. 
He also stated that she had placed obstacles in the way of 
recruiting at Louveciennes, and gave evidence concerning 
the papers found at her house. 

Xavier Audouin, attached to the Ministry of War, 
deposed that some days after the events of August 10, 
1792, while patrolling with an armed force the environs 
of Saint-Germain- en-Laye, information was brought him 
that the Chateau de Louveciennes was " full of ci-devant 
noblemen of the Court " ; that he had repaired thither 
and questioned the mistress of the house, who offered him 
refreshments and denied that there was any person con- 
cealed on her premises ; that, her manner appearing to 
him suspicious, he had broken into a room, which she had 

ment of H6ron that the elder Vandenyver had fired at him with a gun 
during the disturbances wliich followed the storming of the Tuileries 
on August 10, 1792. 
1 See p.351, supra. 

384 



MADAME DU BARRY 

assured him was a linen-closet, and found there Maussabre, 
Brissac's aide-de-camp, whom he arrested and removed to 
prison. 

Jean Baptiste Blache, commissary of the Committee of 
General Security, stated that he formerly resided in London, 
where he had seen the accused in the company of various 
imigris and the supposed English spy, Forth. After the 
death of " Capet," the Du Barry wore mourning, " avec le 
plus grand faste anglais" and attended all the memorial 
services. 

Dumas, vice-president: " What answer have you to 
make to the evidence of this witness ? " 

Madame du Harry : " I wish to say that I certainly saw 
in London Mesdames de Calonne and Mortemart, but 
that our relations were merely those of friendship." 

Dumas : " Did you wear mourning in London for 
Capet ? " 

Madame du Harry : " I wore a black dress, because I 
had brought dresses of no other colour with me." 1 

The next witness was a friend, the Chevalier d'Escourre, 
who was brought up from La Force, and courageously 
endeavoured to take upon himself the responsibility of the 
loan to Rohan-Chabot, stating that, being aware that 
Madame du Barry was desirous of finding an invest- 
ment for the money, he had suggested the mortgage in 
question. 2 

When the chevalier had concluded his evidence, 
Fouquier-Tinville rose and demanded that the witness 
should be at once removed from La Force to the 

1 This was no doubt true, as she was in mourning for Brissac. 

2 It should be mentioned that the loan to Rohan-Chabot was a duly 
executed mortgage on the duke's estates in Brittany, bearing interest at 
four and a half per cent., and that the court had the deed in its 
possession. 

385 2B 



MADAME DU BARRY 

Conciergerie and brought to trial. His request was 
granted, and poor d'Escourre, condemned for " practising 
machinations against the Republic," was executed on 
December u. 

Then commenced the evidence of the treacherous ser- 
vants and the other witnesses whom Grieve had recom- 
mended. 

The thievish Salanave, now a member of the revolu- 
tionary committee of Versailles, spoke to the visits of 
Brissac, Labondie, d'Escourre, the Marquise de Brunoy, 
and other aristocrats to Louveciennes, and added that, " in 
his quality of patriot," he had been badly treated by his 
fellow servants, and, finally, dismissed by his mistress. 

Madame du Barry, when asked if she had anything to 
say to the evidence just given, informed the court that 
the dismissal of Salanave was due, not to his political 
opinions, but to his unfortunate weakness for her porcelain, 
" which disappeared daily." 

Louis-Benoit Zamor, native of Bengal, stated that he 
had been brought up by the accused since the age of 
eleven ; that her house was frequented by aristocrats, who 
rejoiced openly over the checks which the armies of the 
Republic sustained ; that he had remonstrated with the 
accused on the folly and wickedness of her conduct ; but 
that, so far from following his sage counsels, she had, on 
learning of his connection with Grieve, Blache, and other 
patriots, " informed him, in an imperious tone, that she 
gave him three days to leave her house." 1 

Jean The not, schoolmaster at Louveciennes, formerly 

Zamor's treachery did not benefit him much. Soon after the trial 
he was arrested as an accomplice of the woman he had denounced, and, 
though released, appears to have led a wretched existence. He died in 
great poverty in 1820. 

386 



MADAME DU BARRY 

in the service of Madame du Barry, deposed that, in 1789, 
at the time of the murder of Foulon, he had heard the 
accused declare that the people were " a pack, of wretches 
and villains." 

The Accused, interrupting the witness : " Where did you 
hear me make such a remark ? " 

The Witness : "It was while going to your melon - 
house." 

The Accused : The charge is false ; it is an atrocious 
lie." 

Two of Madame du Barry's femmes-de-chambre were the 
next witnesses, one of whom stated that she had accom- 
panied her mistress on her visits to London, and that 
while there she was frequently visited by French emigre's ; 
while the other declared that the night after the arrest of 
Brissac was spent by the accused in burning papers. 

Madame du Barry gave a flat denial to this last allega- 
tion, after which the court adjourned till the following 
day. 

On December 7 (Frimaire 17), further witnesses for 
the prosecution were called, the most important of whom 
was one Nicolas Fournier, surveyor of buildings, and 
formerly juge de paix for the canton of Marly, who de- 
posed that he had examined the articles found by Grieve 
in various parts of the grounds of the accused, and that 
amongst them were a watch-chain, an opera-glass, and a 
pencil-case, all of which objects had been advertised as 
forming part of the property stolen on the night of 
January 10, 1791. 

This evidence, of course, went to strengthen the con- 
tention of the prosecution that the robbery had never 
taken place ; but Madame du Barry explained to the 

387 



MADAME DU BARRY 

court that the objects in question had been sold by the 
thieves ere leaving France, and subsequently restored 
to her. 

Of evidence for the defence there was none. Two 
important witnesses had been summoned : Boileau, who 
had suspended Madame du Barry's arrest in the previous 
June, and Chaillau, a member of the administration of 
Versailles ; but both, by a curious coincidence, were con- 
fined to their beds by severe illness, and sent certificates 
of their inability to attend, much, we may presume, to 
the chagrin of the amiable Fouquier, who had no doubt 
hoped to make them incriminate themselves. 1 Lafleuterie 
for Madame du Barry, and Chauveau-Lagarde for the 
Vandenyvers 2 "combated vigorously" (according to the 
latter advocate's account) the charges against their clients, 
and then Fouquier rose to reply, and in the grotesque 
jargon which at this period passed for eloquence pro- 
ceeded to harangue the admiring jury as follows : 

" Citizen Jurors, — You have passed sentence on the 
wife of the last tyrant of the French ; you have now to 
pass sentence on the courtesan of his infamous predecessor. 
You see before you this La!s celebrated by the depriva- 
tion of her morals, the publicity and the scandal of her 
debaucheries, whom libertinage alone enabled to share 
the destinies of the despot who sacrificed the blood and 
treasure of his people to his shameful pleasures. The 
scandal and opprobrium of her elevation, the turpitude 

1 E. and J. de Goncourt's La Du Barry, p. 309. 

2 In the course of some questions put to the elder Vandenyver by 
Dumas, it transpired that the letter of credit " for an unlimited 
amount " mentioned by Fouquier in his opening speech, was a request 
to Thellusson to furnish Madame du Barry with " any small sums " 
which she might happen to require. The letter of credit for ^50,000 
had no existence, save in the imagination of the Public Prosecutor. 

388 



MADAME DU BARRY 

and disgrace of her infamous prostitution, are not, how- 
ever, matters to which you must now give your attention. 
You have to decide if this Messalina, 1 born among the 
people, enriched by the spoils of the people, who paid 
for the opprobrium of her morals, fallen by the death of 
the tyrant from the position in which crime alone had 
placed her, has conspired against the liberty and the 
sovereignty of the people ; if, after being the accomplice 
and the instrument of the libertinage of kings, she has 
become the agent of tyrants, nobles, and priests against 
the French Republic. The trial, citizen jurors, has 
already thrown the clearest light on this conspiracy. 
You know what revelations the depositions of the wit- 
nesses and the documents have furnished concerning this 
execrable conspiracy, to which the annals of nations can 
afford no parallel ; and assuredly never has an affair of 
more importance been presented for your decision, since 
it offers you, in a fashion, the principal link in the plots 
of Pitt and his accomplices against France. 

"... Such, citizen jurors, is the result of the trial 
which has taken place. It is for you, in your wisdom, 
to weigh the evidence. You see that royalists, federalists, 
all the factions, though divided among themselves in 
appearance, have all the same centre, the same object, the 
same end. The war abroad, that in La Vendee, the 
troubles in the South, the insurrection in the Department 
of Calvados, all have the same principle and the same 
head ... all march under the orders of Pitt. But the 
veil which covered so many iniquities has been, in some 
degree, lifted — one may say to-day that it has been rent 

1 Fouquier had at first written "femme"; but he struck it out and 
substituted the name of the Roman Empress. He had already com- 
pared Madame du Barry to both Aspasia and Lai's ! 

389 



MADAME DU BARRY 

asunder — and nothing remains for the conspirators, save 
disgrace and the punishment of their infamous plots. 
Yes, Frenchmen, we swear it ; the traitors shall perish, 
and liberty alone survive. She has resisted and will 
resist all the efforts of the allied despots, their slaves, 
their priests, and their infamous courtesans. . . . The 
vile conspiratrice who stands before you was able to live in 
the lap of luxury, acquired by her shameful debauchery, 
in the midst of a country which appeared to have buried, 
with the tyrant whose companion she had been, the 
remembrance of her prostitution and the scandal of her 
elevation. But the liberty of the people was a crime in 
her eyes ; she required it to be enslaved, to cringe to its 
masters, and the best of the substance of the people was 
consecrated to her pleasures. This example, joined to 
many others, proves more and more that libertinage and 
evil morals are the greatest enemies of liberty and the 
happiness of peoples. In striking with the sword of the 
Law a Messalina guilty of a conspiracy against the 
country, not only will you avenge the Republic for her 
outrages upon it, but you will uproot a public scandal 
and strengthen the empire of that morality which is the 
chief foundation of the liberty of peoples." 

Fouquier, unfortunately, did not think it worth while 
to take down Dumas's summing-up ; but, from a memo- 
randum left by Chauveau-Lagarde, we learn that the 
charges against Madame du Barry which the jury were 
called upon to consider, were as follows : 

" Accused of conspiring against the French Republic 
and having favoured the success of the arms of the enemies 
in its territory by procuring for them exorbitant sums in 
her journeys to England, where she herself emigrated. 

" Wearing, in London, mourning for the late King. 

39° 



MADAME DU BARRY 

" Living habitually with Pitt, whose effigy she wore on 
a silver medal. 

" Having caused to be buried at Louveciennes the letters 
of nobility of an emigri and also the busts of the former 
Court. 

"And, finally, having wasted the treasures of the State 
by the unbridled extravagance in which she had in- 
dulged before the Revolution, during her commerce 
with Louis XV." 

The Vandenyvers were charged with being " the accom- 
plices of her machinations." 

It was a quarter to ten at night when the jury retired 
to consider their verdict. 

They were absent from court an hour and a quarter — 
fifteen minutes longer than they had required to decide 
upon the fate of Marie Antoinette — and, on their re-entry, 
returned " an affirmative answer " on all counts of the 
indictment against the former favourite, and the same in 
regard to the charge against the bankers. 

Fouquier at once demanded the full penalty of the law ; 
and " the court condemned Jeanne Vaubernier, wife of 
Du Barry, ci-devant courtesan ; Jean Baptiste Vandeny ver, 
Edme Jean Baptiste Vandenyver, and Antoine Auguste 
Vandenyver to the penalty of death, and ordered that the 
present sentence should be executed within twenty-four 
hours on the Place de la Revolution of this town." 1 

1 Of the judicial murderers of Madame du Barry, four perished by 
the guillotine within eighteen months, Dumas and Payan sharing the 
fate of Robespierre, in the following July, while the Public Prosecutor 
and another member of the jury, named Vilate, followed them to the 
scaffold in May 1795. Topino-Lebrun, who took notes of the 
evidence which are preserved in the Archives, was involved in a 
conspiracy against the life of Napoleon, and executed on January 7, 
1801. 

39 1 



MADAME DU BARRY 

The wretched woman heard the terrible sentence with 
cries of despair, and was carried back to the Conciergerie 
in a half-conscious condition. It has been stated that, in 
the hope of obtaining a respite, perhaps even a commuta- 
tion of her sentence, she denounced at random a great 
number of persons ; and Louis Blanc, in his Histoire de la 
Rivolution francaise, has gone so far as to give us the exact 
total of her victims, which he places at two hundred and 
forty! 1 Such an assertion, we need hardly observe, is a 
mere fable, and quite unworthy to find a place in an 
authoritative work. What poor Madame du Barry actu- 
ally did was to purchase a few short hours of life by re- 
vealing to Denisot and Claude Roger, the deputy-Public 
Prosecutor, the whereabouts of a considerable quantity of 
gold and silver plate and jewellery, which she had con- 
cealed in her garden, and which had hitherto escaped the 
prying eyes of Grieve 2 and his confederates. In so doing, 
she, unfortunately, admitted that in concealing certain 
articles she had been assisted by her faithful valet-de- 
chambre> Morin, and a woman called Deliant ; and the 
former was subsequently brought to trial and executed, 
while the latter, whose husband, arrested with her, had 
died in prison, committed suicide. Morin, however, was 
already in custody, and would, very probably, have shared 
his unhappy mistress's fate in any case. 

For three hours a clerk was occupied in taking down 
the inventory of the hidden treasure, for every word she 

1 Vol. x. p. 236. 

2 This miscreant appears to have continued his denunciations until 
some months after the fall of Robespierre, when he was arrested at 
Amiens and twenty-two depositions taken against him. He was, how- 
ever, acquitted, and in 1796 returned to America, where he published a 
translation of the Marquis de CMtellux's Travels. Eventually, he 
settled in Brussels, and died in that city on February 22, 1809. 

39* 



MADAME DU BARRY 

spoke added a second to her life ; and the declaration 
terminated with an offer to write to London for her 
jewels, if such were the desire of the Court, " as she could 
without difficulty recover the property of which she had 
been robbed, on payment of the costs of the action." 1 

But those men, "drunk with the blood of a King," 
were pitiless ; she who had been so merciful to others 
could obtain none herself — in this world at least — and 
scarcely had the poor lady, with trembling fingers, affixed 
her signature to the declaration than a gaoler entered to 
Cut her hair and inform her that the tumbril — " the bier 
of the living," as Barrere cynically called it — was at the 
door. 

On the way to the scaffold, whither she was accompanied 
by the Vandenyvers and Jean Noel, the brave and upright 
deputy for the Vosges, whose opposition to the Terrorists 
had cost him his life 2 , Madame du Barry displayed, we 
are told, great cowardice, though authorities differ as to 
the form which this cowardice took. According to the 
sensational account given by the Goncourts, which is based 
on some Souvenirs of the Revolution published in La 
Nouvelle Minerve, she uttered heartrending cries, offered to 
give all her wealth to the nation in return for her life — it 
had already been confiscated by decree of the Revolutionary 

1 Madame du Barry's jewels remained in Ransom's bank until the end 
of the following year, when they were sold by order of the Court of 
Chancery. The proceeds of the sale, which realised 13,300 guineas, 
appear to have been paid over to her niece, Madame de Boissaisson, and 
some of the countess's creditors. 

2 It was Jean Nogl who declined to vote at the trial of Louis XVI., 
on the ground that, as his son had fallen in a war for which he regarded 
the King as being directly responsible, he could not hope to be an 
impartial judge. 

393 



MADAME DU BARRY 

Court — implored the bystanders to save her, and struggled 
so violently that the executioner and his two assistants had 
the greatest difficulty in preventing her springing from the 
cart. On the other hand, the account given in The 
Gentleman's Magazine for 1793 represents her as having 
been in a state of such prostration that " the executioner 
was under the necessity of supporting her in his arms the 
whole way ; " while it is to be remarked that the Terrorist 
journals, Le Glaive vengeur, Les Revolutions de Paris, and 
the rest, though ever ready to gloat over the sufferings of 
the condemned, make no mention of any such scene as the 
one described by the Goncourts. 

About her behaviour when actually upon the scaffold 
there is more unanimity of opinion. Then she is described 
as resisting the executioners with all her feeble strength, 
and when overcome and forced on to the plank, entreating 
them not to hurt her, and begging for "one moment 
more. l 

1 Here is an account of the tragedy, which, though second-hand 
evidence, bears the unmistakable stamp of truth : 

" I was well acquainted with a French gentleman, recently dead, 
who was an involuntary ^witness of the execution [of Madame du Barry] 
and who has often given me details of it. He was then a lad of about 
seventeen, and had been riding with a friend of his in the environs of 
Paris. On their return through the Champs Elysees, they found them- 
selves in the Place Louis XV. [Place de la Revolution, ci-devan f Louis 
XV.] surrounded by a dense mob and the guillotine in full ope ation. 
His first impulse was to spur his horse and avoid the horrid sight, but 
he was checked by his friend, who was more prudent and alive to the 
danger, for the crowd had already begun to grumble and to cry ' Gare 
aux aristocrats ! ' So they were forced to pull up their horses and remain 
silent spectators of the horrid tragedy. He said her shrieks were dread- 
ful to hear ; she struggled with the executioners, and they were near 
enough to hear her exclaim, * Ab y Monsieur, ne faites pas du mal? or * Vous 
allez, mefaire du mal ' — he was not sure which. The scene over, they 
were forced to take off their hats and shout with the rest, ' Vive la 

m 



MADAME DU BARRY 

But the fall of the fatal knife put an end to her 
anguish, and to the long line of left-hand queens of 
France. 1 

Republique ! ' It was not without difficulty that they got safe to their 
homes. He soon afterwards entered the army and so escaped ; he told 
me he had often since dreamt of the cries. He had no vivid recollec- 
tion of her person." — Manuscript of John Riddell, cited by 
Cunningham in his edition of Horace Walpole's Letters. 

1 About five weeks after Madame du Barry had been guillotined in 
Paris, the " Roue " was executed at Toulouse. After his flight from 
Paris, in May 1774, Jean du Barry had resided at Toulouse, where 
Arthur Young, the celebrated traveller, found him living in opulence, 
and was so charmed with a portrait of hi3 sister-in-law which he saw at 
his house that he felt he could pardon Louis XV. his infatuation for 
such a beauty. When the Revolution came, the " Roue" embraced the 
new ideas and raised and equipped an armed force, of which he was 
appointed second colonel. Having got into debt, however, he was 
obliged to hide from his creditors, and was denounced as an intended 
emigre. At his trial, he refused to plead, remarking that the few years 
left him to live — he was then about seventy — were not worth 
arguing about. He died with courage and resignation. 



395 



INDEX 



Abense, Chevalier d\ in, 

Adelaide, Madame (daughter of Louis 
XV.) 
her character, 63; intercedes for the 
recall of Choiseul, 175 ; prevents 
Marie Antoinette speaking to Madame 
du Barry, 212 ; governed by her dame 
d'atours, Madame de Narbonne, 226 ; 
intrigues, but without success, in 
Madame du Barry's favour, 227 ; as- 
sists the Du Barry party in preventing 
the Archbishop of Paris speaking of 
confession to Louis XV., 261, 262. 
See also Mesdames de France 

Aiguillon, Due d' 

presents Belleval to Madame du 
Barry, 111-113 ; enmity between him 
and Choiseul, 114, 115 ; his adminis- 
tration of Brittany, 114, 115; his con- 
duct at the Battle of Saint-Cast, 116 
note ; enters into an alliance with 
Madame du Barry against Choiseul, 
117 ; obtains the post of Captain- 
Lieutenant of the Clievau-ldgers, 117; 
joined by Maupeou and Terray, 118- 
123 ; bitterness of the Breton magis- 
trates against him, 141 ; his trial 
before the Parliament of Paris, 142 ; 
reputed lover of Madame du Barry, 
142 ; intervention of the favourite on 
his behalf, 142 ; the proceedings 
against him annulled, 143; "his 
honour declared compromised," 143 ; 
decrees against him ordered to be 
effaced from the registers of the Parlia- 
ment, .146; working for the downfall 
of Choiseul, 150 ; urges Louis XV. to 
dismiss the Minister, 153 ; incites 
Madame du Barry to persecute the 
friends of Choiseul, 175 ; intrigues to 
secure the post of Minister of Foreign 
Affairs, 176, 177; obtains it, through 
the influence of Madame du Barry, 
178 ; his appointment celebrated by a 
dinner at Louveciennes, 179 ; receives 
a letter " full of confidence and friend- 
ship " from Gustavus III. of Sweden, 
; ,j82 ; persuades Louis XV,, to deprive 



Aiguillon, Due d' — continued 

Choiseul of the command of the Swiss, 
187 and note ; opposed to the duke's 
claim for compensation, 188, 189; 
presents a magnificent vis-a-vis to 
Madame du Barry, 193 ; complains 
to Mercy-Argenteau of the conduct of 
Marie - Antoinette, 204 ; graciously 
treated by Dauphiness, 206 ; arranges 
interview between Mercy and Louis 
XV, , 207-210 ; condescension of Marie 
Antoinette towards him, 221, 222; 
indifferent to first Partition of Poland, 
222, 223 ; intrigues with the Comtesse 
de Narbonne, 226, 227 ; demands ex- 
tradition of Th^veneau de Morande, 
246 ; his conduct during Louis XV.'s 
last illness, 259-265 ; last instructions 
of the King to him, 271 ; dismissed 
from office and exiled, 284 note 

Aiguillon, Duchessed', 114, 207, 224, 225, 
263 

Aiguillon, Duchesse (dowager) d\ 179 

Alais, Bishop of, 276 

Alger, Mr. J. G. (cited), 296, 304 and 
note, 305, 312 

Allegrain (sculptor), 199 

Allonville, Comte d' (cited), 231 note, 
308 

Almanack de Flore, 81 

Almanack de Lidge, 251 

Almanack des Muses, 237 

Amar, of the Committee of General 
Security, 365, 366 

Anecdotes stir Madame la Comtesse du 
Barry, Pidansat de Mairobert's, 280, 
281. See also Pidansat de Mairobert 

Angivil'er, Comte d'. 173 

Angola, La Morliere's, 79^ 

Anne of Austria, 130, 384 

Arcambal, M. d', 28 

Argenson, Comte d', 104, 163, 192, 
203 

Argenson, Marquis (cited), 32 and note, 
86 

Armagnac, Princesse d', 5 

Arnaud, Abbe\ 13 

Arnould, Sophie (actress), 108 note, 162 



397 



INDEX 



Artois, Comte d' 

appointed Colonel-General of the 
Swiss, 187 ; marries Maria Theresa 
of Savoy, 243 ; reported to be the 
lover of Madame du Barry, 284 ; for- 
bids his wife to speak to the favourite, 
284 ; emigrates, 324 ; his portrait dis- 
covered by Grieve at Louveciennes, 

371 
Artois, Comtesse d', 235 and note, 243, 

257 
Aubert, C. (Court jeweller), 277 
Audouin, Xavier (witness against Madame 

du Barry before the Revolutionary 

Court), 384 
Aumont, Due d', 252, 253, 256, 261, 267 
Ayen, Due d', 267 

Bachaumont, 170 note, 174 
(cited) 79, 170 

Ba.cbe\ier (valet-de-cham&re to Louis XV.), 
32 note 

Bailly, Jean Sylvain (Mayor of Paris), 
329 and note 

Barrere (cited), 393 

Barriere, M. , 304, 305 

Barry, Francoise, called " Chon " du (sis- 
ter-in-law of Madame du Barry) 
her character, 34 note ; brought by the 
"Rout" to Paris, 34, 35 ; installed at 
Versailles, 97 ; supports the Comte 
de Broglie against d'Aiguillon and 
Cond6, 178 ; persuades the favourite 
that she has been badly treated by 
Marie-AntoinKte, 226 ; signs marriage 
contract of Adolphe du Barry and 
Mademoiselle de Tournon, 233 ; at 
Saint- Vrain, 281 ; at Louveciennes, 
278, 279 

Barry, Comte Guillaume du (husband of 
Madame du Barry) 
brought by his brother from L^vignac 
to Paris, 34 ; his marriage with Jeanne 
Becu, 35-38 ; his liaison with Made- 
leine Lemoine, 39 ; extorts money from 
his wife, 230 ; judicially separated from 
her and pensioned, 230, 231 

Barry, Jean Baptiste, called Adolphe, 
Vicomte du, nephew of Madame du 
Barry 
threatened by Madame du Barry's 
dressmaker, 26 note ; in delicate health, 
31; page to the King, 58; Madame 
du Barry's matrimonial projects in 
regard to him, 232 ; marries Made- 
moiselle de Tournon, 233 ; his aunt's 
donation to him, 233 and note ; cruel 
treatment of his wife by Marie Antoi- 
nette, 234, 235 ; banished from Court, 
273 ; leads a wandering life, 291 ; 
killed in a duel at Bath, 292, 293 ; sin- 
gular conduct of his widow, 293, 294 

Barry, Jeanne Becu, Comtesse du 

her genealogy, 10; her birth, 11 ; her 
baptism, 11, 12; comes to Paris, 13; 



Barry, Jeanne B£cu, «. omtesse du — con- 
tinued 
befriended by M. Billard-Dumouceaux; 
sent to the Couvent de Sainte-Aure, 
13 ; education which she receives there, 
14-17; returns to her mother, 17; 
relations with the coiffeur Lametz, 17- 
19 ; enters the service of Madame de 
la Garde, 19, 20 ; at Labille'a shop, 
20 and note ; serious charge against 
her discussed, 20, 21 ; her first lovers, 
21, 22 ; called herself Mademoiselle 
Beauvernier or Beauvarnier,.22 ; meets 
Jean du Barry, the " Rout" 22; be- 
comes his mistress, 24, 25 ; and calls 
herself Mademoiselle de Vaubernier, 
25, 26 ; her life with the ' ' Roui," 26 
and note ; her friends, 26, 27 ; the 
Prince de Ligne's portrait of her, 27 
and Despreaux's, 27 note ; makes the 
acquaintance of the Due de Lauzun, 
27, 28; new lovers, 28 and note; be- 
comes the fashion, 29 ; her first meet- 
ing with Louis XV., 30-32 ; secret of 
her fascination for him, 32, 33 ; a 
husband ordered to be found for her, 
33 and note ; her marriage with Guil- 
laume du Barry, 34-38 ; follows the 
Count to Compiegne, 39 ; and to Fon- 
tainebleau, 39, 40; Mercy's despatch 
to Kaunitz concerning her, 40-44 ; 
incurs the bitter hostility of the Due 
de Cboiseul, 46, 47 ; and of Mesdames 
de Gramont, de Choiseul, and de 
Beauvau,47, 48 ; campaign of calumny 
against her, 48-52 ; indignation of 
Louis XV. at attacks upon her, 53 ; 
installed at Versailles, 54, 55 ; ques- 
tion of her presentation, 56, 57 ; sup- 
ported by Due de Richelieu, 57 ; diffi- 
culties in the way of her presentation, 
57-59 ; the Comtesse de Beam con- 
sents to act as her sponsor, 59, 60 ; her 
rivals, 60 and note ; " Lisetts, ta beauti 
sMuit," 6r and note ; intrigues of 
Mesdames against her, 63-68 ; her pre- 
sentation postponed, 68 ; does not see 
the King for several days, 69 ; is pre- 
sented and becomes maitresse en titre, 
70-72 ; hostility of the Court to her, 
73, 74 ; sups at Bellevue, 75, 76 ; cha- 
feronnage of the Marechale de Mire- 
poix purchased for her, 76-78 ; her 
supporters, 78 ; work dedicated to her 
by the Chevalier de la Morliere, 78- 
80 ; intercedes for Appoline Gregebis, 
83 ; saves the lives of the Comte and 
Comtesse de Loiiesme, 84-88; reaction 
in her favour, 88, 89 ; the chateau and 
estate of Louveciennes conferred upon 
her, 89-92 ; saluted by the Regiment 
de Beauce, 92, 93 ; correspondence 
between Louis XV. and Choiseul con- 
cerning her, 93-97; seeks a reconcilia- 
tion with Choiseul, 97, 98 ; visits the 



398 



INDEX 



Barry, Jeanne Becu, Comtesse du — con- 
tinued 
Prince de Conde" at Chantilly, 98, 99 ; 
her two portraits, by Drouais, in the 
Salon of 1769, ioo, 101 ; her position 
at Court growing stronger, 101, 102; 
her skilful self-effacement, 103; con- 
tinued hostility of Choiseul to her, 103, 
104; letter of the King to Choiseul 
about her, 105, 106 ; torments the 
King with complaints of his Minister, 

106, 107 ; practical joke played at her 
expense by the Due de Lauraguais, 

107, 108 ; obtains pardon for Sophie 
Arnould, 108 note ; visits the farmer- 
general Bouret, 108, 109 ; receives a 
charming compliment, 109; inter- 
venes to save the life of a deserter, 
110-114 ; her alliance with the Due 
d'Aiguillon against Choiseul, 117 ; 
procures for him the post of Captain- 
Lieutenant of the Chevau-Ugers, 117; 
joined by Maupeou and the Abb^ 
Terray, 118-122; receives Les Loges 
de Nantes from the King, 125 ; re- 
moves to apartments of the late Dau- 
phiness, 126-127; her position as a lady 
ot the Court generally acknowledged, 
128; " occasioning Choiseul consider- 
able embarrassment," 129; sups with 
Royal Family at La Muette on the 
evening before Dauphin's marriage, 
X2P ; her servility towards Marie An- 
toinette, 1132 ; received by the Dau- 
phiness "without affectation," 133 ; as- 
tonishes the Dauphin at Saint-Hubert, 
134; "the most foolish and imperti- 
nent creature imaginable," 135 ; Mes- 
dames prejudice the Dauphiness against 
her, 136, 137 ; her quarrel with the 
dames du palais of Marie Antoinette, 

137, 138 ; her conduct in regard to the 
exile of the Comtesse de Gramont, 

138, 139 ; indignation of Marie Antoi- 
nette against her, 139, 140 ; believed 
to be the mistress of d'Aiguillon, 142 ; 
persuades the King to annul the pro- 
ceedings against the duke, 142, 143 ; 
procures the release of an imprisoned 
magistrate, 145 ; charges Choiseul 
with secretly inciting the Parliaments 
to resistance, 147 ; urges the King to 
dismiss the duke, 153, 154; suggests 
the questioning of the Abbe 1 de la 
Ville, 157 ; attends the Bed of Justice 
of April 13, 1771 ; conversation with 
the Due de Nivernais, 169 ; question 
of her responsibility for the destruction 
of the old Parliament, 169-175 ; per- 
secutes the friends of Choiseul, 175, 
176 ; endeavours to get dAiguillon 
appointed Foreign Minister, 176, 177 ; 
and succeeds, 178 ; gives a dinner at 
Louveciennes in honour of the duke's 
appointment, 179 ; her bust by Pajou 



Barry, Jeanne B£cu, Comtesse du — con- 
tinued 
and portrait by Drouais at the Salon 
of 1771, T79, 180; attentions paid her 
by Gustavus III. King of Sweden, 
181; receives "a very flattering let- 
ter" from that monarch, 182, 183; 
induces the Government to grant him 
subsidies, 183 ; wishes to send him 
her portrait, 183, 184; receives a letter 
from the King, 184 and note; entertains 
no personal animosity to Choiseul, 184, 
185; procures for the ex-Minister com- 
pensation for the loss of the command 
of the Swiss, 187-191 ; Choiseul's in- 
gratitude towards her, 190, 191 ; does 
not aspire to a political role, 192, 193 ; 
her drafts on the Treasury honoured 
as "orders of the King," 193; her 
extravagance and luxury, 193, 194 ; 
her apartments at Versailles, 195; her 
household, 195, 196 ; purchases an 
h6tel at Versailles, 196 ; builds the 
Pavilion of Louveciennes, 197-199 ; 
entertains the King to a f£te there, 
199-201 ; reasons for her failure to 
obtain the same recognition as Ma- 
dame de Pompadour, 202, 203 ; con- 
tinued hostility of Marie Antoinette 
towards her, 203, 204 ; persuades the 
King to interfere, 206, 207 ; meets 
Mercy- Argenteau, 207; her interview 
with him, 208, 209; addresses the 
King as "Monsieur," 209 and note; 
the Dauphiness prevented by Madame 
Adelaide from speaking to her, 211, 
212 ; addressed " without affectation " 
by the Comtesse de Provence, 213 ; 
obtains the appointment of the Du- 
chesse de Cosse' as dame datours to 
the Dauphiness, 218 ; spoken to by 
Marie Antoinette, 219 ; her treatment 
by the Dauphiness at Compiegne 
(July 1772), 221, 222; and at Fon- 
tainebleau, 223-225 ; her reception by 
Marie Antoinette on New Year's Day, 
1773, 225, 226 ; unsuccessful intrigue 
to secure her better treatment from 
the Royal Family, 226, 227 ; annoyed 
by the extortions and intrigues of the 
"Roue"," 228, 229; and by threatening 
letters from Guillaume du Barry, 230 ; 
judicially separated from her husband, 
231 ; her kindness to her relatives, 
231 ; her matrimonial projects in re- 
gard to Adolphe du Barry, 232, 233 ; 
marries him to Mademoiselle de 
Tournon, 233, 234 ; her donation to 
them, 234 and note ; marries Elie du 
Barry to Mademoiselle de Fumel, 235 ; 
sends Voltaire two kisses, 236; charm- 

• ing verses addressed by the poet to 
her, 236, 237 ; attempts Xf supplant 
her in affections of Louis XV., 238- 
241 ; alarmed at the intrigues of 



399 



INDEX 



Barry, Jeanne Becu, Comtesse du— con- 
tinued 
Madame Louise, the Carmelite, 242 ; 
her supposed letter to the Pope, 24a ; 
unfounded rumour of her approaching 
disgrace, 243, 244 ; endeavours to con- 
ciliate the Dauphiness by present of 
a pair of diamond earrirrgs, 244 ; not 
thin-skinned, 244, 245; Mimoires 
secrets d'une femme publique, 245-248 ; 
her fall predicted by Almanack de 
Liige for 1774, 251 ; her conduct 
during Louis XV. 's last illness, 251- 
262 ; is sent to Rueil, 263 ; exiled to 
the Abbey of Pont-aux-Dames, 269- 
271 ; " enchants the nuns," 274, 275 ; 
her financial difficulties, 277; leaves 
Pont-aux-Dames and purchases estate 
of Saint-Vrain, 278; her life at Saint- 
Vrain, 279; sells her hotel at Ver- 
sailles, 279 ; publication of the Anec- 
dotes of Pidansat de Mairobert, 280, 
281 ; relations with the Vicomte de 
Langle, 281-284; reported to have 
become the mistress of the Comte 
d'Artois, 284; returns to Louveciennes, 
284, 285 ; visited by Emperor Joseph 
II., 287, 288; calls upon Voltaire, 
289 ; meeting with Brissot, 290, 291 ; 
Mirabeau's opinion of her, 291 ; loses 
her nephew Adolphe du Barry in a 
duel, 291-294 ; her Haisonvnth Henry 
Seymour, 294-297 ; her love-letters to 
him, 298-303; her liaison with the 
Due de Brissac, 306-308 ; love-letters 
she receives from the duke, 309-311 ; 
visited by Belleval, 311, 312; com- 
mutes her rentes on the H6tel de Ville 
for a lump sum, 312 ; witness in the 
Diamond Necklace affair, 313 ; her 
life at Louveciennes, 314-316 ; Che- 
verny's impressions of her, 316-319 ; 
satirised by Saint-Just, 320 and note ; 
shelters the wounded gardes-du-corps , 

321, 322; letter to Marie Antoinette, 

322, "323 ; robbed of a great part of 
her jewellery, 324-326 ; attacked by 
the Revolutionary Press, 326, 327 ; 
her first visit to London in quest of 
her stolen jewels, 327-329 ; her second 
and third visits, 329, 332 ; her portrait 
by Cosway, 332, 333 ; her letter to 
Brissac on the night preceding his 
arrest, 336 and note, 337 ; letters of 
the Duchesse de Mortemart to her, 
337-339, 340 ; legacy bequeathed to 
her by Brissac, 341, 342 and note ; 
his letter to her from Orleans, 342; 
his aide-de-camp, Maussahr^, arrested 
at her house, 343 ; false report of her 
own arrest in Courrier franqais, 343 ; 
letter of the Chevalier d'Escourre to 
her, 345, 346 ; Brissac murdered at 
Versailles, and his head brought to 
Louveciennes, 347, 348 ; her grief at 



Barry, Jeanne Becu, Comtesse du — con- 
tinued 
her lover's terrible fate, 349; makes 
preparations for a fourth journey to 
England, 350 ; her letter to the Presi- 
dent of the Convention, 351, 352 ; 
decision of the English courts in re- 
gard to her jewels, 352 ; her meeting 
with Gabriel, Due de Choiseul, in 
London, 353; visits the imigris and 
wears mourning for the death of Louis 
XVI., 353; returns to France, 353, 
354 and note ; reasons for her cruel 
persecution by George Grieve discussed, 
354-356 ; seals placed on her pro- 
perty, 356 ; her letter to the adminis- 
tration of Versailles leads to their re- 
moval, 357 ; dismisses Salanave, 357 
note ; petition of certain inhabitants 
of Louveciennes against her, 358 ; her 
arrest suspended, 358 ; denounced by 
Grieve at the bar of the Convention, 
358, 359 ; placed under arrest, 359 ; 
but released, 280 ; Grieve's pamphlet 
against her, 360, 361 ; dismisses Za- 
mor, 361 ; advised by Lavallery to 
remove to Versailles, 362 ; her last 
love affair, 362-364 ; denounced to 
the Committee of General Security, 
365, 366 ; warrant issued for her arrest, 
366 ; arrested by Grieve and removed 
to Sainte-Pdlagie, 366, 367 ; appeals 
to the Department of Seine-et-Oise, 
367 ; suicide of her protector, Laval- 
lery, 367, 368 ; appeals to Committee 
of General Security, 368 ; arrest of 
her bankers, the Vandenyvers, 369 ; 
annotations made by Grieve upon her 
papers, 369-371 ; her interrogatory, 
372-375; committed for trial, 376; 
interrogated by Dumas, vice-president 
of the Revolutionary Court, 376, 377 ; 
her letter to Fouquier-Tinville, the 
Public Prosecutor, 377 ; removed to 
the Conciergerie, 378 ; her trial before 
the Revolutionary Court, 380-391 ; 
condemned to death, 391 ; declaration 
in regard to her property concealed at 
Louveciennes, 392, 393 ; fate of her 
stolen jewels, 393 note ; her execution, 
393-395 

Barry, Marquise du [ne'e de Fumel), 235, 

273 

Barry, Marthe, called " Bitschi," du, 34 

and note, 2S0 
Barry, Nicolas, called Elie, Marquis du 

(brother-in-law of Madame du Barry), 

57. 93. 235. 273 
Barry, Vicomtesse du (ne'e de Tournon), 

233, 273, 291-294, 312 
Barry-C^res, Comte Jean du (the "Roui") 
meets Jeanne Becu, 22 ; his history, 

22, 23 ; his infamous life, 23 ; aspires 
to provide Louis XV. with a mistress, 

23, 24; invites Jeanne B6cu " to take 



400 



INDEX 



Barry-C£res, Comte Jean du (the " Roue") 
— continued 
charge of his house," 24, 25; profits 
by her beauty, 28 note and 29 ; his ex- 
planation of her first meeting with 
Louis XV., 31, 32 ; ordered to procure 
a husband for her, 33 ; goes to Le"- 
vignac, and brings his brother, Guil- 
laurne, to Paris, 34 ; and marries him 
to Jeanne Becu, 35-38 ; forges certifi- 
cates for the marriage, 38 ; mentioned 
by Mercy- Argenteau, 40 ; an impor- 
tant factor in the situation, 97 ; his 
interview with the Due de Lauzun at 
Compiegne, 97 ; seeks to reconcile 
Madame du Barry and Choiseul, 97, 
98 ; finances his sister-in-law during 
the early days of her favour, 126 ; reap- 
ing a rich harvest, 228 and note, 229 ; 
annoys Madame du Barry by his in- 
trigues and extortions, 229 ; ordered 
to retire to his estates, 229 ; anxious 
to marry his son, Adolphe, to Mademoi- 
selle de Saint-Andre", 232, 233 ; signs 
marriage contract of his son and Made- 
moiselle de Tournon, 233; has a law- 
suit with his daughter-in-law, 293, 294; 
lettre de cachet issued against him, 270 ; 
flies to Lausanne, 271 ; his subsequent 
career, 395 note 

Barry de Mervel, Comte, 36 note 

Barrymore, Richard, Earl of, 328 and 
note 

Barrymore, The House of. 36 and note 

Baudeau, Abb6 (cited), 256 note, 275 

Baudin, Antoine and Pierre, statement 
of, 348 note 

B£arn, Comtesse de, 59 and note, 60, 68, 
74. 76 

Beauce, Regiment de, salutes Madame du 
Barry, 92-97 

Beaujon (Court banker), 193 

Beaumarchais, 247, 248 

Beaumont, Christophe de, Archbishop of 
Paris, 55 note, 242, 259-261 

Beaunoir (playwright), 50 

Beauvais, Abbe" de, 251 and note 

Beauvarlet (engraver), 101 

Beauvau, Prince de, 48 and note, 77, 175, 
332 

Beauvau, Princesse de, 48 and note, 73, 
103, 104 

Beauveset, Robb6 de (poet). See Robb6 
de Beauveset 

Beche, Madame, 238 

B£cu, Anne (mother of Madame du Barry) 
her family, 10 ; gives birth to Jeanne, 
ir ; and to a son, 12, 13 and note ; 
comes to Paris, 13 ; befriended by 
M. Billard-Dumouceaux, 13 ; marries 
Nicolas Rancon, 17; lays a complaint 
against the widow Lametz, 17-19; calls 
herself the Dame de Monrabe", 231 ; 
her daughter's kindness to her, 231 

Be'cu, Fabien, 10, 11 



Be'cu, PMene, 11, 18, 231 and note, 27 

note 
Belleval (cited), 58, 60, 75, 111-114, 188, 

3". 312 
Bernis, Cardinal de, 23, 121,203 
Besenval (cited), 157, 158, 190, 257, 263 

note, 266, 271 
Billard-Dumouceaux, 13 and note 
Billiardi, Abbe", 336 note, 339 
Binet {valet-de-chambre to Dauphin), 196 
Bingham, Hon. A. D. (cited), 258, 295, 

308 
Birabin, Jean, n 
Blache (spy and witness against Madame 

du Barry at her trial), 357, 382 note, 

38S 
Blanc, M. Charles (cited), 17a 
Blanc, Louis (cited), 365, 392 
Bohmer (jeweller), 313 
Boileau, 358, 388 
Bonnac, Abb6 de, 22 
Bordeu (physician), 254, 255 
Bouchardon (sculptor), 178 note 
Bouffiers, Chevalier de, 61 note 
Bourbonnaise, La, 48, 49 
Bourbonnaise k la guingette, La, 50 
Bourdaloue, Pere, 251 
Bouret (farmer-general) 108, 109 and 

note 
Bouvard (doctor), 284 note 
Boydell (Lord Mayor of London), 329 
Breteuil, Baron de, 175 
Briard, 198 

Brionne, Comte de, 241 
Brissac, Due, Duchesse and Marechal de. 

See Cosse"- Brissac 
Brissot, 290, 291, 304, 367 
Brissot, Madame, 367 
Broglie, Comte de, 176-178 
Broglie, Marechal de, 176 note 
Brunoy, Marquise de, 314, 386 
Brunswick, Duke of, 340 
Buccarelli, Don Francesco (Governor of 

Buenos Ayres), 148 
Buffon, 289 note 
Bunbury, Lady Sarah, 28 

Cailhava (poet), 55 and note, 81 
Calonne, 322 note, 353, 370, 383 
Calonne, Madame de, 374, 385 
Cantril, M. Emile (cited), 297 
Carcassonne, Bishop of, 261 
Carlos III., King of Spain, 149, 151, 159, 

185 
Carlyle, Thomas (cited), 256 note 
Catherine II., Empress of Russia, 216 
Chaillau (administrator of Versailles), 

388 
Chamfort (cited), 48 note 
Champcenetz, Marquis de, 241 
Charles I., Van Dyck's portrait of, 170- 

174 
Charpentier (deserter), 110-114 
Chartres, Due. de, 70, 155, 161 
Chartres, Duchesse de, 4 

4OI 2C 



INDEX 



Chateauroux, Duchesse de, 83, 115, 117, 

235, 255 and note 
Chatelet, Due du, 185-190 
Chaulnes, Due de, 117 
Chauveau-Lagarde (advocate), 381, 388, 

39° 
Chauvelin, Marquis de, 76, 250 note 
Chesterfield, Earl of (cited), 27 note 
Chevalier, 81 

Cheverny : see Dufort de Cheverny 
Choiseul, Duchesse de, 47, 48, 73, 160, 

161, 230 note, 237 
Choiseul, Etienne Francois, Due de 
Choiseul 
encourages his sister to aspire to the 
post of maltresse en titre, 2 ; insults 
Madame d'Esparbes and causes her 
disgrace, 3 ; his interview with Ma- 
dame de Seran, 7, 8 ; confers with the 
Spanish and Austrian Ambassadors on 
the subject of Madame du Barry, 42, 
43; his unique position, 45, 46; his 
bitter hostility to Madame du Barry, 
46, 47 ; begins a campaign of calumny 
against her, 48-53 ; enmity of Riche- 
lieu towards him, 56 ; puts forward 
rivals to Madame du Barry, 60 and 
note ; enlightens Mesdames as to the 
position of the lady, 61 ; unwilling to 
advise the King to marry Archduchess 
Elizabeth of Austria, 66, 67 ; present 
at supper-party at Bellevue, 75, 76 ; 
reprimands the Regiment de Beauce 
for saluting Madame du Barry, 93 ; 
his correspondence with Louis XV. on 
this matter, 93-97 ; declares that there 
is "war to the knife " between himself 
and the favourite, 98 ; dominated by 
Madame de Gramont and the Prin- 
cesse de Beauvau, 103 ; urged by 
Louis XV. to be reconciled to Ma- 
dame du Barry, 104-106 ; exhausts the 
favourite's patience, 106 ; ' ' receives 
daily little annoyances," 107 ; enmity 
between him and the Due d Aiguillon , 
114, 115 ; fails to obtain the command 
of the Chevau-ligers for his cousin, 
117 ; cabal formed against him, 118- 
123 ; supports Maynon d'Invau against 
Maupeou, 124 ; ' ' still in the best of 
spirits," 124 ; alarmed at increasing 
influence of Madame du Barry, 129 ; 
bases his hopes of victory on the 
arrival of Marie Antoinette, 129 ; 
accused of inciting the Dauphiness 
against the favourite, 140 ; his attitude 
in regard to the proceedings against 
d' Aiguillon, 146, 147; treated with 
marked coldness by the King, 147 ; 
determined to provoke war in order to 
maintain himself in power, 148-150; 
his duplicity, 151, 152; urges Louis 
XV. to dismiss Maupeou and Terray, 
154; intrigues against him, 155-158; 
his disgrace, 158-160 ; popular sym- 



Choiseul, Etienne Francois, Due de 
Choiseul — continued 
pathy for him, 161-164 ; his life at 
Chanteloup, 164 and note ; persecu- 
tion of his friends by d' Aiguillon and 
Madame du Barry, 175, 176 ; de- 
prived of the command of the Swiss, 
185, 186 ; sends the Due du Chatelet 
to Versailles, 187 ; and obtains com- 
pensation through the good offices of 
Madame du Barry, 187-190 ; his in- 
gratitude, 190 ; his conversation with 
the Vicomte de Langle, 283, 284 ; 
disappointed in his hope of returning 
to power, 288 ; Joseph II. 's opinion of 
him, 288, 289 

Choiseul, Gabriel, Due de, 97, 105 note, 
160 note, 335, 353 

Choiseul, Vicomte de, 60 note, 117 

Choiseul, Vicomtesse de, 60 note 

Choiseul-Praslin, Due de, 45 note, 160 
note 

"iClaimant," The, 305! 

Claveyron, Marquis de, 294, 312 

Clermont, Comte de, 193 note 

Clicot, 195 

C0II6, 27 

Conde" (engraver), 332 

Cond6, Prince de 

receives Madame du Barry at Chan- 
tilly, 98, 99; joins the cabal against 
Choiseul, 155 ; obtains from Louis 
XV. a promise to dismiss the duke, 
156 ; protests against the destruction 
of the Parliament of Paris, 169 note ; 
obtains the post of Minister of War 
for Monteynard, 176 ; his animosity 
towards the Marechal de Broglie, 176 
note ; intrigues against the Comte de 
Broglie and d'Aiguillon, 177, 178 ; 
visited by Gustavus III. of Sweden, 
181 ; one of the admirers of Madame 
Pater, 239, 240 

Corday, Charlotte, 381 

Coss6-Brissac, Due de 

compels his wife to accept post of 
dame datours to Marie Antoinette, 
218 ; beginning of his liaison with 
Madame du Barry, 306—308 ; his love- 
letters to her, 309-311 ; at Louve- 
ciennes, 315, 316 ; commissions Ma- 
dame Vig6e Lebrun to paint two por- 
traits of Madame du Barry, 320 note ; 
arrested, but soon released, 321 ; re- 
fuses to desert Louis XVI., 324: de- 
frays the expenses of Madame du 
Barry's first journey to England, 329 ; 
appointed to command of the Garde 
constitutionnelle, 335 ; outcry against 
him in the Revolutionary Press, 335 ; 
his arrest decreed by the National 
Assembly, 335 ; declines to escape, 
336 ; writes to Madame du Barry, 
336 ; arrested and conducted to Or- 
leans, 337 ; examined and taken back 



402 



INDEX 



Coss6-Brissac, Due de — confirmed 

to prison, 338, 339 ; his legacy to 
Madame du Barry, 341, 342 ; his letter 
to her from Orleans, 342 ; his aide-de- 
camp, Maussabre", arrested at Louve- 
ciennes, 342, 343 ; brought from Or- 
leans to Versailles, and murdered, 
347, 348 ; his head brought to Louve- 
ciennes, 348 and note ; correspon- 
dence between his daughter and 
Madame du Barry on his death, 348, 
349 ; his portrait sent to the countess, 

363 

Cosse"-Brissac, Duchessede,2oi, 307 note, 
308 

Cosse"-Brissac, Mardchal de, 272 note, 306 
note 

Cosway (painter), his miniature of Ma- 
dame du Barry, 332, 333 

Courrier franqais, Le (cited), 343, 345, 
348 note 

Coustou, Guillaume fits (sculptor), 109 

Cowper, Lady Caroline, 295 

Crtbillon fire, 78 

Cre"billon_/f/j, 27, 79 

Crequy -Montmorency, Madame de, 367 

Creutz, Comte de (Swedish Ambassador), 
180 and note, 181, 182, 183, 184, 
(cited), 308 

Critic, The (New York), (cited) 198 note 

Cromot, (clerk of the Exchequer), 155 

Croy, Due de (cited), 128 

Crozat, the demoiselles, 97 note 

Damer, Mrs., 292 

Damiens, 51, 168 note, 178 note 

Danby, William, 276 

Danton, 345 

Dauphin, The : see Louis XVI 

Dauphiness, The : see Marie Antoinette 

David (Judgeof Revolutionary Court), 381 

Deffand, Madame du, 181, 234, 237 

(cited) 67, jj, 107, 124, 138, 162, 

175. lSl 
Deliant (servant of Madame du Barry), 

392 
Dellile, Abb6, 371 
Denisot (Judge of Revolutionary Court), 

381, 392 
Deville, Baron (engineer), 90 
Desfontaines de la Valine, 275 and note 
Despre"aux (dancing-master), (cited) 27 

note, 241 
Diamond Necklace, Affair of, 313 
Diderot (cited), 81, 101 
Dorothie, La belle (courtesan), 23, 24 
Doublet, Madame, 170 note 
Douglas, Mr. R. B. 281 

(cited) 39, 54 note, 172, 174, 251 
note, 273 note, 282, 294 
Drouais (painter), 66, 67, 100, ioi, 179, 

198, 288 
Du Barry, Comtesse, etc. See Barry, Com- 

tesse du, etc 
Ducrest (painter), 67 



Dufort de Cheverny, Comte, 316 

(cited) 8 note, 164 note, 316-319 
Dulaure (cited), 199 
Dumas (Vice-President of Revolutionary 

Court), 376, 381, 385, 390, 391 note 
Dumouriez, 371 

(cited) 26, 93, 129 
Dupaty (Attorney-General of Parliament 

of Bordeaux), 145 
Duras, Due de, 27, 175, 240, 265 
Durfort, Comte Louis de, 296 
Dutens, Louis (cited), 30, 164 and note, 

378 note 
Duval (reputed lover of Madame du 

Barry), 22 
Duval de Lepinay, Mademoiselle, 278 

Egmont, Comtesse d', 181 and note, 182, 

184 
Egmont, Earl of, 148 
Elisabeth de France, Madame, 137 
Elizabeth of Austria, Archduchess, 42 

note, 63, 65 and note, 66, 67, 70, 105 

and note, 242 
Enclos, Ninon de 1', 26 
Epinay, Madame d' (cited), 120 
Escourre, Chevalier d , 328, 345, 367 and 

note, 385, 386 
Esparbes, Madame d', 2, 3, 7 
Estain, Mademoiselle (mistress of Louis 

XV.), 9 

Family Compact, The, 148, 154, 155 

Fauchet, Abb6, 345 

Favier, 14 

Feuillet, 198 

Flammarens, Madame de, 345 

Flammermont, M. Jules (cited), 32 note, 

118 note, 147, 152 
Fleury, Cardinal de, 175 
Fontanelle, Madame de, 28 
Fontanges, Duchesse de (mistress of Louis 

XIV.), 78 note 
Forneron, M. (cited), 378 
Forth (English detective), 370, 373, 374, 

384. 38S 
Fortun6 (6migr6), 374 
Foulon de Doue\ 94 and note, 387 
Fouquier-Tinville (Public Prosecutor) 
Madame du Barry's letter to him, 377; 
takes notes of the evidence at her trial, 
381 ; his speeches against her and the 
Vandenyvers, 382-384, 388-390 ; his 
fate, 391 note 
Fournier (surnamed TAmericain), 344 and 

note, 345, 346, 347 and note 
Fournier, Nicolas (witness against 
Madame du Barry before Revolu- 
tionary Court), 357 
Fragonard (painter), 198 and note, 388 
Frances (French Ambassador in London), 

151 note 
Frederick the Great, 216 
Frondeville (ex-president of Parliament of 
Rouen), 374 



4°3 



INDEX 



Fronsac, Due de, 260, 264 

Fuentes (Spanish Ambassador), 42 and 
note, 43, 44, 52, 179, 181 note 

Fumel, Mademoiselle de. See Barry, Mar- 
quise du 

Fumel, Marquis de, 235 

Gabriel, Jacques Ange (architect), 91, 

197 
Galards of B£arn, The, 59 note 
Galon (vicar of Vaucouleurs), 11 
Gaucher (engraver), 101 
Gaudon (actor), 50 
Gaulot, M. Paul (cited), 269 
Genlis, Comte de, 17 
Genlis, Comtesse de (cited), 70, 71 
Geoffrin, Madame, 13 note 
Goorgel, Abb6 (cited), 296, 297 
Gentleman's Magazi?ie, The (cited), 394 
Gleichen, Baron von, 181 note 

(cited), 106 
Goezman, 247 
Gomard, Abbe" (reputed father of 

Madame du Barry), 2, 19, 37 and 

note 
Gomard de Vaubernier, Jean Jacques 

(mythical father of Madame du Barry), 

35. 37 

Goncourt, E. and J. de, 19, 304, 394 

(cited), 17, 20 note, 39. 54, 56, 115, 
197, 273 note, 295, 306 and note, 
379, 393 

Gordon, Lord George, 329 and note 

Goudard, Sara (cited), 21 note, 32 

Gourdan, La (entremetletcse), 20, 21 and 
note 

Gouthiere, 199 

Gramont, Due de, 1 note 

Gramont, Duchesse de 

aspires to the heart of Louis XV., 1 ; 
her appearance and character, 2 ; too 
masterful in her wooing, 2 ; does not 
abandon hope, 47 ; incites her brother, 
the Due de Choiseul, against Madame 
du Barry, 47 ; urges him to renewed 
attacks upon the favourite, 56, 57 ; op- 
posed to marriage of Louis XV. with 
Archduchess Elizabeth of Austria, 66, 
67 ; begs to be excused from attend- 
ance at the King's petits soupers, 98 ; 
"makes outrageous remarks," 98; 
prevents her brother from being re- 
conciled to the favourite, 103, 104; 
receives marks of favour from Maria 
Antoinette, 140; accused of stirring 
up Parliaments of Provence and Lan- 
guedoc to resist .the King, 147 ; the 
stumbling-block to an understanding 
between Choiseul and Madame du 
Barry, 318 

Greg^ois, Appoline, 83, 84 

Greuze (painter), 183 and note, 333 

Grieve, George 

takes up his quarters at Louveciennes, 
354; his history, 354, 355; probable 



Grieve, George — continued 

reason for his cruel persecution of 
Madame du Barry, 355, 3561; wins 
over her servants, Salanave and Zamor, 
356 ; and obtains an order for seals to 
be placed on her property, 356 ; draws 
up a petition against her, 358, 359 ; his 
pamphlet, L Egaliti controuve'e, 360, 
361 ; resolves to denounce her pro- 
tector Lavallery, 362 ; presents a fresh 
petition against her to the Committee 
of General Security, 365, 366 ; and 
obtains a warrant for her arrest, 366 ; 
arrests her, 367 ; and the Chevalier 
d'Escourre, 367 and note ; conducts 
her to Sainte-P^lagie, 367 ; his anno- 
tations upon her papers, 369-371 ; 
collects her jewellery and money and 
draws up a list of witnesses, 371, 372 ; 
importuning the Public Prosecutor, 
378 ; gives evidence against her before 
Revolutionary Court, 384 ; his subse- 
quent career, 392 

Grimaldi, Marquis (Spanish Minister), 149 
and note, 151, 158 

Grosley (cited), 13 

Gu6men6e, Princess^ de, 288 

Gurnard, Madame (cited), 353 

Guenee de Brochau, 229 

Guiffrey, M. Jules (cited), 172-174 

Gustavus III., King of Sweden 

visits Paris, 180 ; wins golden opinions 
from all parties, 180, 181 ; his relations 
with Madame d'Egmont, 181 and 
note ; presents a rich collar to Madame 
du Barry's lapdog, 181 ; receives a 
letter from the favourite, 182; sends 
a very flattering one to her, 183 ; 
Madame d'Egmont entreats him not 
to accept Madame du Barry's portrait, 
182 ; obtains subsidies from France 
through tbe lady's good offices, 183 ; 
Madame du Barry wishes to send him 
her bust by Pajou, and portrait by 
Greuze, 183, 184 ; his letter to her after 
his coup a" itat of August 1772, 184 and 
note ; receives Madame d'Egmont's 
portrait, 184 

Hall (painter), 181 note, 182 

Hardy (cited), 60 note, 62 note, 71, 75, 

142, 269, 277 note, 307, 308 
Harris, James (afterwards Earl of Malmes- 

bury), 154 and note 
(cited), 149 note 
Hausset, Madame du (cited), 23, 24, 29 

note, 55 note 
Hawkesbury, Lord (afterwards first Earl 

of Liverpool), 370 and note 
H6ron (of the Committee of General 

Security), 369 
Hopkinson, Miss, 305 



IMBERT DE SAINT - AMAND, 

(cited), 33, 195 



Baron 



4°4 



INDEX 



Invau, Maynon d' (Comptroller-General), 

123, 124, 163 note 
Irine, Voltaire's, 2S9 

Jarente, Bishop of Orleans, 175 

Jaucourt, Chevalier de, 178 

Jenkinson, Robert Banks (afterwards 
second Earl of Liverpool), 370 and note 

Joseph II., Emperor 

comes to France, 287; speaks his mind 
to Marie Antoinette, 287 ; visits 
Madame du Barry at Louveciennes, 
287, 288 and note ; refuses to visit the 
Choiseuls, 288 ; his opinion of the 
ex-Minister, 288, 289 

Jolivet (bailiff), 85, 86 

Jorre, Abbe" de, 17 

Kaunitz-Rietberg, Prince von, 40, 52, 
60, 64, 67, 216 and note 

Labondie, 352, 358, 386 

La Borde {valet-de-chambre to Louis XV.), 

7, 236, 247, 253, 258, 259, 264 
La Chalotais, 116 and note, 142 
La Fontaine, 78 and note, 79 
La Garde, Francois Pierre de, 19, 20, 278 
La Garde, Madame de, 19, 20 
La Garde, Nicolas de, 19, 203 
La Marche, Comte de, 169 note, 201 

note 
La Martiniere (surgeon), 249, 250, 253, 

363 
Lamballe, Prince de, 90 
Lamballe, Princesse de, 90, 242 
Lametz (reputed lover of Madame du 

Barry), 17-19, 50 
Lamoignon, Chancellor, 118 
La Motte, Comtesse de, 313 
La Morliere, Chevalier de, 78-80 
Lange or l'Ange, Mademoiselle. See Barry, 

Comtesse du 
Langle, Vi comte de, 281-284 
L ' Apprentissage, d 'une fille de modes, 51 
V Apothdose du Roi Petaud, 51 
La Rena, Countess (mistress of the Duke 

of Queensberry), 26 and note 
La Reynie (Lieutenant of Police under 

Louis XlV. ), 170 note 
La Roche-Aymon, Cardinal de (Grand 

Almoner), 261, 262, 265, 266, 267 
La Roche-Fontenille, Abbe de, 17, 369, 

37°. 375- 3 8 3 
La Koche-Fontenille, Madame de, Abbess 
of Pont-aux-Dames, 16, 17, 275, 277, 

375 
La Rochefoucauld, Cardinal de, Bishop 

of Rouen, 373 and note, 375, 383 
La Rochefoucauld, Due de, 159 
La Rocheterie, M. de (cited), 156 
Lassonne (physician), 254 
La Tour-du-Pin, Chevalier de, 93, 95 
Lattaignan, Abbe de, 61 note 
Latude, 245 
Lauraguais, Due de, 107, 108 and note 



Lauzun, Due de, 2, 28 

(cited), 2, 26, 28, 97, 98 
Lavallery, 362, 368 
La Vauguyon, Due de, 63, 132 and note, 

133 and note, 135, 137, 288 
Laverdi (Comptroller-General), 123 and 

note 
La Ville, AbbS de, 156, 157 and note, 

250 note 
La Vrilliere, Due de, 159 and note, 160 

and note, 207, 272, 277, 307 note 
Lebel (valet de-chambre to Louis XV.), 

30, 31, 32 note, 33 note, 40 
Leber, M., 273 note 
Le Bien-Aimi de I 'Almanack, 163, 177 

note 
Lebrun, 289 note 
Lebrun, Madame (painter). See Vigee 

Lebrun 
Lecomte (sculptor), 197, 199 
Ledoux (architect), 173 and note, 196, 

197, 277 
DEgaliti controuvie, Grieve's pamphlet, 

360, 361 and note 
Le Fatalisme, La Morliere's, 79 
Le Gazetier cuirassi, 243, 246 
Legrand, Mademoiselle, 26 
Lemoine, Madeleine, 39 
Lemonnier (doctor), 252, 255 
Le Neveu, Madame, 294 
Lenormant d'Etioles (husband of Madame 

de Pompadour), 71 
Le Nouveau Marie", 81 
Le Sopha, Cr6billon's, 27 
Le Strange (engraver), 171 
Les Loges de Nantes, 125, 126 
Letellier (painter), 363 
Liancourt, Due de, 257 
Lieven, Baron de, 183, 184 
Ligne, Prince de, 27, 55, 277 note 

(cited), 14 
L' Ombre de Louis XV. devant le tribunal 

de Minos, 281 
Lorry (physician), 254 
Loiiesme, Affair of the Comte and Com- 
tesse de, 84-88 
Louis XIV., 10, 90, 130, 251, 268 note 
Louis XV. 

his heart an object of contention, 1,2; 
alarmed at the masterful wooing of 
Madame de Gramont, 2 ; exiles Ma- 
dame d'Esparbes, 3 ; his platonic 
liaison with Madame de Seran, 4-8 
and note ; temporarily penitent, 8, 9 ; 
first meeting with Jeanne Becu, 30-32 ; 
completely subjugated by her charms, 
32, 33 ; orders a husband to be found 
for her, 33 ; his responsibility for the 
forgeries committed at her marriage 
considered, 38 ; gives Madame du 
Barry a suite of apartments at Fon- 
tainebleau, 39 ; indignant at the attacks 
upon his mistress, 53 ; installs her at 
Versailles, 54 ; decides that she shall 
be presented, 56, 57 ; insensible to the 



405 



INDEX 



Louis XV. — continued 

charms of Madame Millin, and the 
Vicomtesse de Choiseul, 60 and note ; 
entreated by Mlesdames to marry the 
Archduchess Elizabeth of Austria, 65, 
66; appears to favour the proposal, 
67 ; meets with an accident, 68, 69 ; 
does not see the favourite for several 
days, 69, 70; has Madame du Barry 
presented, 70-72 ; determined to com- 
pel the Court to accept his mistress, 
74 ; gives a supper at Bellevue, 75, 76; 
purchases the chaperonnage of Ma- 
dame de Mirepoix, for the favourite, 
76, jj ; pardons the Comte and Com- 
tesse de Loiiesme on the intercession 
of Madame du Barry, 87, 88 ; confers 
the chateau and estates of Louve- 
ciennes upon the favourite, 89 ; cor- 
respondence with Choiseul on the sub- 
ject of Madame du Barry, 93-97 ; takes 
the lady with him to Chantilly, 98 ; 
endeavours to reconcile Choiseul to 
Madame du Barry, 104-106 ; exiles 
the Due de Lauraguais, 107, 108 ; 
orders the femmes galantes to be ex- 
pelled from Fontainebleau, 108 ; visits 
the farmer-general Bouret, 108, 109 ; 
pardons a deserter at the request of 
the favourite, 111-113; his strained 
relations with the Parliament of Paris, 
119-121 ; makes Terray Comptroller- 
General, 124 ; confers Les Lo%es de 
Nantes on Madame du Barry, 125, 
126 ; gives her apartments in the 
Petits Cabinets, 126-129 ; receives 
Marie Antoinette, 130 ; invites Ma- 
dame du Barry to the supper at La 
Muette, 130 ; charmed with the Dau- 
phiness, 131 ; exiles the Comtesse de 
Gramont for insulting language to the 
favourite, 137, 138 ; declines to allow 
her to return to Court, 139 ; annuls 
the proceedings against d'Aiguillon, 
142-144 ; his violent quarrel with the 
Parliament, 144, 145 ; his coup d'Etat 
of September 3, 1770, 145, 146 ; treats 
Choiseul with marked coldness, 147 ; 
strongly opposed to war with Eng- 
land on behalf of Spain, 150, 151 ; 
urged by Madame du Barry and her 
partisans to dismiss Choiseul, 153- 
156 ; promises the Prince de Cond6 to 
get rid of the Minister, 156 ; still hesi- 
tating, 156 ; interview with the Abb6 
de la Ville, 157, 158 ; disgraces Choi- 
seul, 158-160 ; satirised by the parti- 
sans of the duke, 162, 163 ; compelled 
to permit the Court to visit Chanteloup, 
163 and note, 164 ; destroys the Par- 
liament, 166, 167 ; his Bed of Justice 
of April 13, 1771, 168, 169 ; believed 
to have been frightened by portrait of 
Charles I. purchased by Madame du 
Barry, 169-175 ; reluctant to make 



Louis XV. — continued 

d'Aiguillon Foreign Minister, 176; 
flattered by the Comte de Broglie, 
176 note; "his throne disgraced," 
178 ; makes dAiguillon Minister for 
Foreign Affairs, 178 ; receives ' ' a 
very touching letter" from Gustavus 
III. of Sweden, 182, 183; "does not 
pardon the slightest thing that may 
wound Madame du Barry," 184 ; de- 
prives Choiseul of the command of 
the Swiss, 185, 186 ; but allows him 
compensation on the intervention of 
the favourite, 187-190 ; his infatuation 
for his mistress, 193 ; attends a. fete at 
Louveciennes, 199-201 ; sends d'Aiguil- 
lon to Mercy Argenteau to complain 
of Marie Antoinette, 204; addressed 
as " Monsieur " by Madame du Barry, 
209 ; begs Mercy to persuade the 
Dauphiness to treat the favourite with 
courtesy, 209, 210 ; appoints Duchesse 
de Coss^ dame d'atours to Marie An- 
toinette. 217, 218 ; indifferent to Par- 
tition of Poland, 220 ; begs Madame 
Adelaide to overcome the Dauphin's 
"marked aversion for the fair sex," 
227 ; declines to permit a natural 
daughter to marry Adolphe du Barry, 
232 ; signs marriage contract of 
Adolphe du Barry and Mademoiselle 
de Tournon, 233 ; his heart difficult 
to retain, 238 ; invites Madame Pater 
to sup with him, 240 ; gives her apart- 
ments in the Chateau of Meudon, 240, 
241 ; intrigues of Madame Louise and 
the Archbishop of Paris for his re- 
marriage, 242 ; invites Madame du 
Barry to a banquet of the Royal 
Family, 243 ; sends Beaumarchais to 
treat with Theveneau de Morande for 
the suppression of his libel on the 
favourite, 247, 248 ; his failing health 
and incurable melancholy, 249, 250; 
his religious terrors awakened by ser- 
mons of Abb6 de Beauvais and Abbe" 
Rousseau , 251 and note ; falls ill at 
the Little Trianon, 251-253 ; removed 
to Versailles, 254 ; his disease found 
to be small-pox, 256, 257 ; visited by 
Archbishop of Paris, 259-261 ; dis- 
covers the nature of his illness, 263 ; 
sends Madame du Barry to Rueil, 
263 ; receives absolution, 265 ; and the 
Viaticum, 265, 266 ; his death, 267 ; 
his funeral, 267, 268 ; question of his 
responsibility for the lettre de cachet 
banishing Madame du Barry to Pont- 
aux-Dames, 269-271 ; memorial ser- 
vices for him, 276 and note 

Louis XVI. 

his marriage iwith Marie Antoinette, 
130; prejudiced against Choiseul by 
his governor, the Due de la Vau- 
guyon, 133 and note ; attends a 



406 



INDEX 



Louis XVI. — continued 

supper -party at Saint-Hubert, 133, 
134; a diffident husband, 134 and 
note ; acquainted by Mesdames with 
the antecedents of Madame du Barry, 

134 ; informs the Dauphiness, 134 ; too 
reserved to invite his wife's confidence, 

135 ; indignant at the Comte de Pro- 
vence's request for the command of 
the Swiss, 187 note ; annoyed by 
Madame du Barry's building opera- 
tions at Versailles, 196 ; solicits the 
appointment of Madame de Saint- 
M6grin as dame d"atours to Marie An- 
toinette, 218 ; receives Madame du 
Barry graciously, 225 ; shows ' ' marked 
aversion for the fair sex," 227 ; his 
remark concerning Adolphe du Barry, 
232 ; sends La Martiniere to Trianon 
at beginning of Louis XV.'s last ill- 
ness, 253 ; present at administration 
of the Viaticum to the King, 265, 
266 ; not responsible for lettre de cachet 
banishing Madame du Barry to Pont- 
aux- Dames, 270 ; dominated by Marie 
Antoinette and Mesdames, 277 ; de- 
clines to allow Madame du Barry to 
leave Pont-aux-Dames, 277 ; disgraces 
dAiguillon, Maupeou, and Terray, 
284 note ; still prejudiced against Choi- 
seul, 288 ; generous treatment of Ma- 
dame du Barry, 312 ; his humiliating 
position after the flight to Varennes, 
334 ; appoints Brissac to command of 
the Garde constitutionnelle, 335 ; urges 
him to escape on the night the duke's 
arrest is decreed, 335 ; impression cre- 
ated in London by his execution, 353 

Louis, Dauphin of France (father of Louis 

XVI.), 116, 133 note 
Louise de France, Madame (daughter of 
Louis XV.) 
her dislike of Choiseul, 63 ; enters the 
Carmelites of Saint-Denis, 136; in- 
trigues for the King's remarriage, 
242 ; alarms Madame du Barry, 242 ; 
his influence over her father increas- 
ing, 243 
Louveciennes, Chateau of, its history and 

description, 89-92 
Louveciennes, Pavilion of, its description, 

197-201 
Lubomirska, Princesse de, 373 
Ludres, Madame de (mistress of Louis 

XIV.), 10, 11 
Luynes, Due de (cited), 90 note 

Machault, 163, 203 

Mailly, Comtesse de, 82 

Maine, Due du, 74 note 

Maintenon, Marquise de, 74 note, 105,240, 

286, 291 
Malesherbes, 31, 175 
Marat, 324 note 
March, Earl of, 7. See Queensberry, Duke 



of Maria Theresa, Empress 

Marie Antoinette's letters to her, 125 ; 
shocked at the attentions of Gustavus 
III. to Madame du Barry, 181 ; re- 
monstrates with the Dauphiness on 
her treatment of the favourite, 205, 
214-216 ; her conduct in regard to 
Partition of Poland, 216 note, 217 ; 
alarmed at Marie Antoinette's beha- 
viour, 219 ; annoyed at Joseph II. 's 
visit to Madame du Barry, 288 note 

Marie Antoinette 

arrives in France, 130 ; presented by 
Louis XV. with the pearl necklace 
bequeathed by Anne of Austria, 130 
and note ; inquires Madame du Barry's 
function at Court, 131 ; treats the 
favourite, at first, with courtesy, 131 ; 
receives her "without affection," 232 ; 
intrigued against by Due de le Vau- 
guyon, 132, 133; conceives strong aver- 
sion to Madame du Barry, 133 ; en- 
lightened by the Dauphin in regard to 
the antecedents of the favourite, 135 ; 
her letters to Maria Theresa, 135 ; falls 
under the influence of Mesdames, 135, 
136; exile of her dame de palais, the 
Comtesse deGramont, 137, 138 ; inter- 
cedes with the King on her behalf, 
139 ; treats Madame du Barry with 
disdain, 140 ; and the Choiseuls very 
graciously, 140 ; does not attempt to 
conceal her regret at exile of Choiseul, 
163 ; continued hostility towards the 
favourite, 203, 204 ; the King com- 
plains of her conduct, 204 ; remon- 
strated with by Maria Theresa, 205 ; 
" displays neither disgust nor temper " 
towards the favourite, 205 ; com- 
mended by the Empress, 206; Mercy 
commissioned by Louis XV. to induce 
her to fe-eat Madame du Barry more 
courteously, 209, 210 ; remonstrated 
with by Mercy, 211 ; promises to speak 
once to the countess, 211 ; but pre- 
vented by Madame Adelaide, 212 ; re- 
ceives strong letter of remonstrance 
from her mother, 214-216 ; intrigues 
over the appointment of her dame 
d'atours, 217, 218 ; " weeps with rage,'' 
217 ; speaks to Madame du Barry, 
219 ; but declares that the lady shall 
never hear her voice again , 220 ; her 
complaisance towards the favourite 
and dAiguillon facilitates Partition of 
Poland, 221-223 ; complains of the 
conduct of Madame du Barry, 223 ; her 
reception of Madame du Barry at 
Fontainebleau (October 1772), 224, 
225 ; and on New Year's Day, 1773, 
225, 226 ; her cruel treatment of the 
Vicomtesse Adolphe du Barry, 234, 
235 ; and of the Marquise du Barry, 
235 ; relents towards the latter, 235 ; 
refuses a pair of diamond earrings 



407 



INDEX 



Marie Antoinette — continued 

offered her by Madame du Barry, 244 ; 
advises Dauphin to refuse to receive 
Ministers during the King's last ill- 
ness, 270; writes to Maria Theresa, 
272 ; dominates her husband, 277 ; 
visited by her brother, the Emperor 
Joseph II., 287 ; annoyed at his visit 
to Madame du Barry, 288 ; and at his 
treatment of the Choiseuls, 288, ^89; 
sends to thank the ex-favourite for her 
care of the wounded gardes-du-corps, 
321, 322 ; opposed to Brissac's appoint- 
ment as commander of the Garde 
constitutionnelle, 335 

Marie Josephe of Saxony, Dauphiness of 
France, 126, 128, 133 note, 217 

Marie Leczinska, Queen of France, 8, 9, 
82 

Marion, M. Marcel (cited), 142 

Marmontel (cited), 4-8 

Marsan, Comtesse de, 63, 137 

Marsy, Abbe" de, 214 and note 

Martin, Henri (cited), 123, 168 

Masserano, Prince de, 151 and note 

Maudoux, Abbe" (Confessor of Louis XV. ), 
232 

Maugard (cited), 232 

Maugras, M. Gaston (cited), 47, 103, 149, 
191 

Maupeou, Rene" Charles de, 118 

Maupeou, Rene" Nicolas de, Chancellor of 
France 
1 his character, 118, 119 ; his portrait, 
118 note ; his aims, 119-121 ; reasons 
for his alliance with Madame du Barry 
and d'Aiguillon against Choiseul, 121, 
122 ; perceives in raffaire d'Aiguillon 
an opportunity for a great quarrel with 
the Parliament, 143 ; incites Louis 
XV. against the Parliament, 145 ; 
working for fall of Choiseul, 153-157; 
destroys the old Parliament, 165-167; 
the object of public execration, 167 and 
note ; his reforms, 168, 169 ; intriguing 
against d'Aiguillon, 222 ; and for Louis 
XV.'s remarriage, 242 ; dismissed from 
office and exiled, 284 note 

Maurepas, Comte de, 104, 106, 284 and 
note 

Maussabre" (aide-de-camp to the Due de 
Brissac), 336, 337, 342, 343, 344, 345, 

383 

Meister, Jacques Henry, 81 

Mercy- Argenteau, Comte de (Austrian 
Ambassador) 
his letters to Kaunitz on the subject 
of Madame du Barry, 40-44 ; intrigu- 
ing for Louis XV.'s marriage with the 
Archduchess Elizabeth of Austria, 64, 
65 ; d'Aiguillon complains to him of 
conduct of Marie Antoinette, 204 ; 
meets Madame du Barry, 207 ; his in- 
terview with her, 207-209 y astonished 
at hearing her address Louis XV. as 



Mercy-Argenteau, Comte de (Austrian 
Ambassador) — continued 
"Monsieur," 209 and note; begged 
by the King to induce the Dauphiness 
to treat the favourite more courteously, 
209, 210 ; obtains a promise from 
Marie Antoinette to speak to Madame 
du Barry, 211 ; his plan frustrated by 
Madame Adelaide, 211, 212 ; remon- 
strates with the Dauphiness, 213; per- 
suades her to speak to the favourite, 
219 ; gives her a lesson in diplomacy, 
221 ; present at her reception of 
Madame du Barry at Fontainebleau 
(October 1772), 224 ; smooths over 
matters after her treatment of the 
favourite on New Year's Day, 1773, 
225, 226 

(cited), 8, 52, 66, 67, 68, 69, 130, 
139, 150, 178, 204, 205, 219, 288 
note 

Mesdames de France (daughters of Louis 
XV.) 
opposed to Louis XV.'s remarriage, 
41 ; in ignorance of Madame du Barry's 
position, 60, 61 ; enlightened by Choi- 
seul, 61, 62 ; urge the King to marry 
Archduchess Elizabeth of Austria, 
64-68 ; constant in their attendance 
upon their father after his hunting acci- 
dent, 69 ; reported to have received 
Madame du Barry "very graciously" 
at her presentation, 72 note; enlighten 
the Dauphin in regard to the antece- 
dents of Madame du Barry, 134 ; ac- 
quire influence over Marie Antoinette, 
136 ; and incite her against Madame 
du Barry, 137 ; their " pernicious 
counsels" the cause of the Dauphi- 
ness's treatment of the favourite, 204 ; 
Maria Theresa warns her daughter 
against them, 205 ; undoing the work 
of Mercy-Argenteau, 211 ; indignant 
with Marie Antoinette for speaking to 
the favourite, 219 ; their heroic con- 
duct during Louis XV.'s last illness, 
257, 258; dominating Louis XVI,, 
277 

M6tra (cited), 256 note 

Michelet (cited), 169 

Millin, Madame, 60 and note 

Monteynard, Marquis de, 176, 177 

Montespan, Marquise de, 10, 16, 89, 130, 
286 

Montesson, Marquise de, 70 note 

Montigny (cited), 32 

Montmorency, Baronne de, 59 

Montmorency, Princesse de, 78 

Montmorin, 330 

Montvallier (steward of Madame da 
Barry), 275 

Moreau le jeune (painter), 162, 199-201 

Morgan, Mr. Pierpont, in possession of 
Fragonard's panels, intended for Pavi- 
lion of Louveciennes, 198 note 



408 



INDEX 



Morin {valet-de-chambre of Madame du 

Barry), 325 note, 358, 392 
Mortemart, Comtesse de, 378 
Mortemart, Duchesse de, 337, 340, 348, 

349 
Murphy, Mademoiselle (mistress of Louis 
XV.), 232 

Nantes, Mademoiselle de (daughter of 

Louis XIV.), 90 
Narbonne, Comtesse de, 226, 227 
Nesle, The sisters de, 90 
Nicquet, Mademoiselle (mistress of Louis 

XV.), 32 
Nivernais, Due de, 27 and note, 61 note, 

169 
Noailles, Comte de, 244 
Noailles, Comtesse de, 135, 234 
Noailles, Due de, 244 
Noel, Jean, 393 
Nolhac, M. Pierre de (cited), 32, 54 note, 

131 

North, Lord. 151 note 
Northumberland, Duke of, 355 
Nouvelles a la main, 170 note 

Orleans, Due d', 169 note, 260, 261 
Orry, Comte de Vignori, 203 
Ossun, Marquis d' (French Ambassador 
at Madrid), 159 

Pagelle (modiste), 194 

Pajou (sculptor), 179, 183, 199 

Pandore, Voltaire's, 236 

Panis (member of the Committee of 
General Security), 365, 366 

Parc-aux-Cerfs, The, 4, 9, 228, 271 

Pater, Madame, 239-242. 

Payan (juror of the Revolutionary Court), 
381, 391 note 

Penthievre, Due de, 89 note 

Penthievre, Mademoiselle de, 70 

Pidansat de Mairobert (author of Anec- 
dotes sur Madame la Comtesse du 
Barry), 280 

(cited), 13, 15, 19, 34 note, 88, 100, 108 

Piles, Barthelemy, 327 

Pilos, Don Olavidez de, 316 and note, 

317 
Pitt, William, 353 note, 370, 382, 384, 

389 
Pleumartin, Marquis de, 86 note 
Public Advertiser, The (cited), 327 
Poland, Partition of, 177 note, 220-223 
Polignacs, The, 288 

Pompadour, Marquise de, 1, 2, 15 note, 

24, 27, 41, 63, 71, 75, 83, 100, 104, 

108, 121, 192, 193, 202, 203, 244, 245 

Pontgibault, Chevalier de, 317 note, 

318 
Provence, Comte de, 187 note, 207 note, 

257. 279 
Provence, Comtesse de, 207 note, 213, 

257 
Prudhomme, 326, 327 



Quantigny, Dame de, 10 
Quantigny. See Becu, Helene 
Queensberry, Duke of, 26 and note, 331, 
332 

Radix de Sainte-Foy (lover of Madame 
du Barry), 28 and note, 30, 284 

Rancon, Nicolas, 17, 231 

Ransom, Morley, and Hammersley 
(bankers), 331, 352, 393 

Raucourt, Mademoiselle (actress), 368 

Restier (actor), 50 note 

Restout (painter), 198 

Rice, Count, kills Adolphe du Barry in a 
duel at Bath, 291-293 

Richelieu, Cardinal de, 115 

Richelieu, Due de 

receives the favours of Madame d'Es- 
parbes, 2; visits at the " Roui's" 
house, 15 ; supports the presentation 
of Madame du Barry, 56; persuades 
Madame de Beam to act as the 
favourite's sponsor, 60 ; has a violent 
quarrel with Choiseul, 147 ; prevents 
the Archbishop of Paris from speaking 
of confession to Louis XV., 260, 261 ; 
makes an unprintable remark, 266 

Robbe de Beauveset (poet), 55 and note 

Robespierre, 376, 378, 381, 392 note 

Roettiers (goldsmith), 194 and note 

Rohan-Chabot, Due, 364, 371, 373, 383, 
385 and note 

Rohan-Rochefort, Prince de, 364 

Roland, Madame, 367 

Roslin (sculptor), 181 

Rouen (jeweller), 325, 328, 329 

Rousseau, Jean Jacques, 120, 181 note 

Ruhliere, 175, 181 note 

Saint-Andre, Mademoiselle de (natural 

daughter of Louis XV.), 232 
Saint-Cast, Battle of, 115, 116 note 
Sainte-Aure, Couvent de, 13-16, 17, 275 
Saint-M^grin, Due de, 133 
Saint-Megrin, Duchesse de, 217, 218 
Saint Vrain, Chateau of, 17, 278, 279, 

281-284 
Salaberry, Comte de, 317 note 
Salaberry, President de, 317 and note 
Salanave (servant of Madame du Barry) 
betrays her secrets to Griev#, 356 ; 
plots with him against her, 357 ; steals 
her porcelain and isi dismissed, 357 
note ; assists Grieve in his investiga- 
tions at Louveciennes, 371 ; gives evi- 
dence against the countess at her trial, 
386 
Sandwich, Earl of, 152 note 
Santerre, 365 

Sartines (Lieutenant of Police), 16, 175 
S6nac (physician to Louis XV.), 69 
Senac de Meilhan (cited), 26, 46 note 
Seymour, Henry 

his family and early life, 294-296 ; his 
liaison with Madame du Barry, 296, 



409 



INDEX 



Seymour, Henry — continued 

297 ; love-letters which he receives 
from the countess, 298-303 ; separated 
from his wife, 304 ; leaves France, 304 ; 
registered as an dmigre" and his pro- 
perty seized, 304 ; fate of Madame du 
Barry's letters to him, 304, 305 

Seymour, Henry the younger, 296, 305 

Seymour, Mrs. Henry, 296, 302, 304 

Simon (jeweller), 328, 351, 352 

Soubise, Prince de, 76, 78, 240, 258, 
267 

Souza, Marquise de, 314 

Sully, Due de, 162, 232 

Talleyrand, 353 
(cited), 154 note 

Terray, Abb6 

joins the cabal against Choiseul, 118 ; 
his portrait, 122 and note ; reason of 
his enmity to Choiseul, 123 ; becomes 
Comptroller-General, 124 ; detested 
by the Parliament, 150 ; urges Louis 
XV. to dismiss Choiseul, 153; supports 
Cond6 against d'Aiguillon and Broglie, 
177, 178 ; instructs the Court banker 
to honour the drafts of Madame du 
Barry, 193 ; his natural daughter, 
Madame d'Amerval, a candidate for 
Louis XV. 's affections, 238 ; draws up 
a letter for Madame du Barry to the 
Pope, 243 and note ; disgraced, 283 
note 

Thellusson (banker), 353, 370, 372, 388 
note 

Thenot (witness against Madame du 
Barry at her trial), 386, 387 

Th^veneau de Morande 

publishes Le Gazetier cuirassi, 245 ; 
writes a libellous book on Madame du 
Barry, 245 ; outwits the police-agents 
sent to capture him, 246, 247 ; Beau- 
marchais sent to negotiate with him, 
247 ; suppresses his work in return for 
a pension, 248 and note 

Thiers, Baron de, 170, 172, 174 

Thuriot (President of the Convention), 

3Si. 359 
lingry, Princesse de, 58 
Topino-Lebrun (painter and juror of the 

Revolutionary Court), 381, 391 note 
Trinchard (juror of the Revolutionary 

Court), 381 

Usson, Marquis d', 175 
Ulrica, Queen of Sweden, 180 

Valentinois, Comtesse de, 129, 137, 
179 



Vandenyvers, The (bankers of Madame 
du Barry) 
furnish Madame du Barry with letter 
of credit, 330 ; advance the money for 
her loan to the Due de Rohan-Chabot, 
364 ; denounced by Heron to the 
Committee of General Security, 369 ; 
interrogated, 375 ; brought to trial, 
with Madame du Barry, before the 
Revolutionary Court, 381-391 ; found 
guilty and condemned to death, 391 ; 
executed, 393 

Van Dyck, his portrait of Charles I., 170- 

174 
Vanot (modiste), 194 
Vatel, M. Charles, in, 302, 305 

(cited), 13, 15, 19, 20, 2r, 32 note, 37, 
52, 91, 92, 158 note, 174, 197 note, 
199-201, 270, 271, 276, 278, 295, 
297. 307. 3 2 3. 336 note, 364 
Vaubernier, Mademoiselle de. See Barry, 

Comtesse du 
Vermond, Abbe 1 de, 131, 211 
Victoire, Madame (daughter of Louis 

XV.), 60, 64, 212 
Vilate (juror of the Revolutionary Court), 

391 note 
Villars, Duchesse de, 217, 218 
Villeroi, Due de, 76 
Villette, Marquis de, 289 
Villette, Marquise de, 289 
Voltaire 

his opinion of Madame du Barry, 86 ; 
receives two kisses, by proxy, from 
the favourite, 236 ; flatters her in verse, 
237 ; his visit to Paris in February 
1778 ; receives Madame du Barry, 
289, 290 note 
(cited), 256 note 

Wallon, M. Henri, 381 note 
Walpole, Horace, 101, 107, 124, 175, 181 

(cited), 26 note, 102 note, 104, 328, 

329, 331, 332 
WLirmser, Baron, 92, 93, 95 

Xavier of Saxony, Prince, (cited) 3 

Zamor (Hindoo servant of Madame du 
Barry) 
figures in Moreau le jeune's picture of 
the supper at Louveciennes, 200 ; 
brought up by Madame du Barry, 200 
note ; betrays ihis mistress to Grieve, 
361 ; assists Grieve in his investigations 
at Louveciennes, 371 ; gives evidence 
against Madame du Barry before the 
Revolutionary Court, 386 ; his subse- 
quent career, 386 note 



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